


Lure

by scy



Category: The Vampire Diaries
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-02-15
Updated: 2010-02-15
Packaged: 2017-10-07 06:50:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 37,847
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/62517
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scy/pseuds/scy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Some choices might be bad ideas</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to **seperis** and **monimala** for reading this, commenting, and being generally indispensable.

At the beginning of the school year, Bonnie had thought she would be taking care of Elena, well, as much as she needed it, and then the two of them would look after Caroline. Then there was reality, and her world didn't have the same rules as everybody else. She had visions that came true, and magic wasn't just a word to her, and neither were vampires. Things could have been simpler, and even the bad guy her Grams warned her was up to no good might be able to help her out, if she knew what to ask him.

She hadn't known if Damon had a cell phone, and didn't want to get in touch with him through his brother. Stefan would have told her it was a bad idea, and Bonnie would admit that was pretty likely. Even thinking about having a conversations with Damon was a drawn out process, full of second guessing herself, and touching her neck where she had a faint scar. After that, and a full hour of laying out the good and bad points of doing this, she was feeling only a little better after she picked a public place for the meeting.

She'd been sitting at her usual table at the Grill for a quarter of an hour when Damon walked through the door. He spotted her right away and walked slowly over, moving through the crowd without losing sight of her. It was clear, to her at least that there was a predator in the crowd, and he was coming to see her. As she nodded to the chair across the table, Bonnie wondered if she knew what she was doing.

"It's good to see you again," Damon said, smiling, and Bonnie stared at him for almost a minute.

"Really."

"You're not very trusting today," Damon said. "Remember, you're the one who wanted to talk to me, if you'd rather, I can leave." He didn't move, though, and Bonnie could tell that he was sure that she had something she wanted to say.

"No, it's just that this reminds me of when I first met your brother."

"Oh?" Damon leaned back, away from her, and waited for her to continue.

"I thought he was cute," Bonnie said.

"Many women do," Damon said and shrugged.

"But when when I touched his hand? I got really bad feeling from him, you know? I thought I was imagining something, and it turns out that I was right. I sensed bad things about both of you."

"Right, our dark sides." Damon snorted, and Bonnie frowned.

"First you two are these tall dark strangers that have all these secrets, and then it turns out that you're the walking dead."

Damon held up a hand. "You're getting us confused with something else. Dead bodies walking around and eating people? Those are zombies. We're vampires," Damon said.

"How is that different?" Bonnie asked.

Damon smirked. "For a witch, you don't know much about the world."

Bonnie sat up straighter. "Hey, I know plenty, not all of us have the same experience you do.." She stared at Damon. "And I won't take that, not from you, got it?"

Damon smiled like she was being funny. "I've got it."

"So, what are you doing here?"

"As in, what am I doing in Mystic Falls, or what am I doing here, right now, with you?"

"Both."

As he leaned closer, Damon said, "I have my reasons for the former, and the latter? I would think that was pretty clear. I like you, Bonnie, and you said you wanted to talk to me."

"You don't even know me, Damon," Bonnie said, and shoved him back. "And so we're clear, it's never going to happen."

Damon tilted his head to the side. "Why not?"

"You need a list?"

"Yes." Damon settled back in his chair, folding his hands over his stomach.

Bonnie raised an eyebrow. "Come on, you're not that stupid, I mean, I know that you can be a jerk, but you're not dumb."

"That's a bit harsh."

"First off, you attacked me, I haven't forgotten it. Before that, you hurt Caroline. I saw the bruises, and she started acting weird, and it was like you were controlling her, and it didn't even mean anything to you, did it?" Bonnie was trying to be there for Elena while she dealt with everything that came along with liking Stefan, but she was still figuring out her own stuff too. That meant she hadn't gotten the full story until she pulled Elena into her room and sat her down with some tissues and ice cream, but then she found out everything.

Damon wasn't moved by her anger. "I don't have the same standards that mortals do, Bonnie. What's a tragedy to you is just another day to me." He waited for her to stop snarling, and then spoke again. "You're not dead, so why complain?"

"See, and that's what's wrong. You don't have any perspective," Bonnie said and shook her head. "Were you always like this?"

"Pretty much, yeah," Damon said, and grinned, showing his teeth, either trying to be charming or make Bonnie nervous, and with Damon, she could never be sure which he wanted more.

"Okay, fine, but if you want to sit here with me,you're going to have to tone it down, all right? At least pretend that you're human."

"Why?"

"You want something from me, more than just my blood, I know that." She had gotten a lot of impressions from people, and most of the ones from Stefan and Damon had been bad ones, but some had just been vague. The one that she got the last time they were around each other was like wanting and waiting at the same time. The best way she could define it was anticipation barely held in check.

Damon dipped his head at her. "Your blood was nice, but yes, I do."

The condescension was expected, but it still made Bonnie roll her eyes. "So, what is it that you want?"

"I think I can help you."

"I don't need the kind of help you give. Not after the last time."

Damon leaned forward. "I think you do, Bonnie. What do you really know about what's going on? You're coming into your powers, and if you aren't careful, it can be overwhelming."

Bonnie shook her head. "Yeah, and all you want to do is guide me through it, right? There's nothing in it for you?"

"Now, does that sound like me?" Damon asked.

"No, so what do you really want?" When Damon didn't answer right away, Bonnie glanced at the clock. "Look, I've changed my mind, and I don't need any help, okay? Anyway, I'm going to be late." She picked up her bag and hurried away, not looking over her shoulder to see if Damon was watching, she figured he would be and that it didn't mean anything.

It wasn't odd for her to go days without seeing Damon, his brother was the one that seemed to think that going to high school was the best way to spend his time. But Damon wasn't doing the same, and he still stayed in town, and nobody could figure out why. When Bonnie and Elena were trying to figure it out, Elena mentioned that it was what Damon did.

Elena wound an end of the knot of yarn around her finger and sighed heavily. "He likes to drive Stefan crazy, mess up whatever he has so that he can feel better."

"Is that what Stefan said?"

"Yeah, and we've seen it, haven't we? As soon as we start getting along, Damon has to pipe up with some lie about what their lives used to be like so that Stefan and I don't get along." Elena shrugged. "And then it turns out that they've got a secret, and it's one that I can't ignore."

"You shouldn't forget what they are, Elena."

"I'm not, but I think it's worth it to try to work past it, see what happens."

"So long as you're careful," Bonnie said, thinking of the way Damon looked at people, like they had to prove that they were worth his attention. If he didn't dismiss them automatically, then it was because he wanted to play with them, eat them, or both.

"I am," Elena said, and nudged the pile of yarn back toward Bonnie. "Why are we doing this again?"

"Grams wanted this stuff untangled, she's got some idea about a knitting project."

"And she wanted you to do this?"

"She saw me almost throw my Chem book out the window this morning and suggested I do this instead." What Bonnie didn't say was that she had been trying to levitate her book, and after an hour and a half she had given up.

Elena glared at another huge knot. "How sweet."

"I know, she's great," Bonnie said, and groaned. "What are we going to do about these guys?"

"I have no idea what anybody should do with Damon, except stay away, and I'm still working on what I want from Stefan."

"Do you think that there's another reason Damon might have come back to Mystic Falls?"

"You'd have to ask him, and since when has he ever told the truth?" Elena shook the yarn off her fingers. "All right, I need to take a break, how about you?"

"Yeah."

There was no easy way to find somebody who showed up when and where they wanted, and disappeared. But, being curious meant that Bonnie was determined, and she tried a couple of places, and then stuck a note under the door of the boarding house. If Stefan found it first, he'd bring it up to her, and she'd deal with that if necessary, but she had a feeling that either way, Damon would hear about it and find her.

She'd been sitting on the curb when a familiar piece of paper fluttered onto the pavement next to her, and she glanced up to see Damon standing next to her.

"Passing notes is so retro, and yet charming." Damon flopped down and stretched his legs out.

"So is wearing black all the time," Bonnie said.

"I'm a vampire, it's a thematic choice."

"You can't wear colors? What, does it make you break out?"

"Well," Damon lifted one shoulder. "You've seen what it did for Stefan. He's pretending to be a teenager and joined the football team." Damon wrinkled his nose. "I'd rather not follow his example."

"Okay, I can see that."

"With that out of the way, do you want to tell me what this is about?"

Bonnie narrowed her eyes. "If I ask you a question, are you going to lie?"

"It depends."

That was more honesty than she had expected, so she went ahead and asked. "What are you doing here in Mystic Falls? I mean, Stefan is in love, I get that, but you? What is there for you here?"

"The opportunity to catch up with my brother, see the sights, you know, reminisce," Damon said.

"Now I know you're lying to me."

"You didn't say I had to tell you the truth."

"Try it, the novelty would make it interesting," Bonnie said, and Damon looked bored. "I bet Stefan says that to you a lot."

"My brother is very much about self improvement, how well he does at it is debatable." Damon leaned on one arm, almost too close, but keeping inches between them. "Now, I know that you didn't go to all the trouble of writing me that cryptic message just to ask me that. Have you changed your mind?"

Bonnie put her shoulders back and met his gaze directly. "I want to find out how much I can do, and I need somebody who can help." She let herself be blunt. "It's going to be messy, and I think you like that."

"Sounds like I'm your guy," Damon said.

"One thing," Bonnie said. "You don't lie about magic, and you don't try to do any of your mind tricks on me. Okay?"

Damon stared at her for a lingering moment and then pulled back, smiling broadly. "Okay. When do you want to get started?"

"Tomorrow, after school. We can meet up at the old Minter place, you know where that is?"

"Down by the river," Damon said.

"Great, I'll see you then." Bonnie hopped up and walked away, not sure if she was doing the right thing, but knew that she was doing what she wanted, and that was the important thing.

They hadn't set a time, but when Bonnie got to the Minter place, Damon was sitting on a log outside the front door. "How long has this place been empty?" he asked.

"Mr. Minter died when I was little, so maybe ten years," Bonnie said. "Why, did you know the family?"

"Almost everybody in this town has family that goes back to the 1800s," Damon said.

"Including you," Bonnie said, and Damon lifted one shoulder in halfhearted shrug.

"Yeah, I knew the Minters."

"Were they nice people?"

Damon had been kicking the log absentmindedly and he stopped, glancing up. "Sure, right up until they weren't." He smiled and stood up. "What did you want to try first?"

Bonnie had brought her bag with her, and alongside her books were a couple things that she would have gotten in trouble for having, if anybody had any idea what they could do with the right person using them.

"I thought I'd start with fire," Bonnie said.

"In a forest," Damon said, and Bonnie rolled her eyes.

"We're by a river."

"How fortunate," Damon followed her down to the riverbank and watched as Bonnie stepped out of her shoes, and rolled up her jeans. Then she stepped carefully into the water until it was up to her ankles. "How is it?"

"Cold."

"Maybe you should start by warming up the water."

"Funny," Bonnie said, and cupped her hands in front of her.

After ten minutes, when her ankles were beginning to go numb, Bonnie flexed her fingers and breathed out her, determined not to give up. She could almost feel it, the sensation like when she had turned away from the candles and then turned back to find the room lit up.

"What are you doing?" Damon asked.

"I told you."

"As far as I can tell, nothing is happening."

"I have to concentrate."

"Your lips are turning blue," Damon said, but when Bonnie gave him a sharp look, he held up his hands. "I'll be quiet, you just keep doing what you're doing."

Bonnie managed to hold out for another couple of minutes and then she dropped her hands. "This isn't happening." She slogged out of the river and stood on the bank, feet so cold that she could barely feel them. "I thought for sure I had it."

"Maybe you did." Damon was crouched down by a log, digging at the dirt, and Bonnie slid her shoes on while he poked around.

"What are you doing?"

Damon didn't look up. "What does it look like?"

"Okay, then why are you digging a hole?"

"I'm bored, and you're no fire starter." He pulled his hand back, and Bonnie frowned.

"You found something?"

"Yeah." Damon turned the small object over in his hand, and stared at it.

Bonnie stamped her feet as she walked back over to her bag. "Are you going to tell me what that is, or just stare at it?"

"It's a bullet," Damon said.

Bonnie pulled out a notepad and didn't wait for Damon to explain himself. "From what?"

"The war."

When Bonnie didn't react, Damon went on. "The Civil War. Troops passed through this area a few times, and they crossed over this river and camped here."

"How do you know that?" Bonnie asked.

"Because," Damon said, standing up and tossing the bullet from one hand to the other, "I was with them." He walked over to where she was kneeling and held out the bullet. "You can have it if you want."

"No, thanks," Bonnie said, trying to picture Damon in a Confederate uniform. "If I wanted to see that kind of stuff, I'd go to a museum."

Damon didn't seem bothered, and turned around like he was going to throw the bullet off into the woods.

"Wait, give it here." Bonnie caught the bullet as he tossed it to her, and stuck it in a pocket of her bag. "You shouldn't throw stuff away just because you can't use it."

"Whatever." Damon folded his hands behind his back. "What now?"

"I thought I'd look at my list and see what I wanted to try next." Bonnie stared at him. "Do you think you could be patient?"

"It's not all that much fun."

"Tough, you wanted to help with this, we're doing it the way I want." She was firm, it was the only way to handle Damon's attitude, and he didn't say anything else. "How do you know about witches?" Bonnie asked. "You knew Emily, but it doesn't sound like you got along all that well."

"I've met a few others," Damon said.

"Where?"

"All over. There was this one in San Francisco-" Damon smirked, and Bonnie deduced that they'd been close.

"She liked you?"

"I am very irresistible."

"I haven't seen that," Bonnie said, and gave him a tight smile.

"You haven't been interested, so I'm not going to waste my time," Damon said.

Bonnie gaped at him. "Your default is to be obnoxious, isn't it?"

"It saves time."

Shaking her head, Bonnie picked up a rock and held it in her palm. She stared at it, and after a couple minutes, she found herself muttering under her breath, commanding it to move. She wasn't aware of anything else, sitting there in a space where it was her will and the stone, and as she got used to the contest, she began to push. All at once, something seemed to give, and she let out a gasp. The rock didn't float, but it did jerk to one side and then roll out of her hand and onto the ground. She was sweating and breathing hard, and when she looked up, Damon was looking directly at her from only a foot away.

"Whoa," Bonnie sat backwards, and barely caught herself on one hand. "Don't worry, I'm all right."

Damon picked up the rock and handed it to her. "It's warm. Whatever you were trying to do was working."

Bonnie grinned. "I know, it was right there, and I had it." She breathed out heavily and shrugged her shoulders. "I feel like I just ran a couple of miles without stretching first. I wonder what a witch does to loosen up before working magic."

"I'm sure there are ways," Damon said.

Making a face at Damon was automatic by now. "If it doesn't include me keeping my clothes on, I don't want to hear about it."

"We could get around that."

"I'm sure you're an expert, but I already said that I'm not going to do that with you." Bonnie wiggled her fingers at him. "None of what you're implying, okay?"

"You might change your mind," Damon said.

"Not if you keep acting like that."

"What other way is there?"

Bonnie didn't say anything, she didn't know what would persuade Damon to try something different, not when his own brother hadn't been able to in over a hundred years. She felt wiped out, even that little bit of spell casting she'd done had taken a lot of effort, and she had a little bit of a headache that was hovering over her and was going to be really bad very soon. "Okay, I think that was enough for today." She packed up her stuff and slung her bag over her shoulder, and turned to Damon. "Thanks for you know, helping out."

"It was nothing," Damon said, and as Bonnie set off back toward where she had parked her car, Damon walked along beside her, sliding glances at her every so often. He didn't explain himself, and Bonnie wasn't going to play into his games by asking, so she just waved at him when she got into her car, and when she glanced in the rear view mirror, he was gone.

From there it became their patten, a couple times a week, they would meet up at the Minter place, and Bonnie would work on her magic. She was getting better at floating objects, and started spinning two and then three rocks in the air before the month was out. Producing fire out of nothing was harder, and she was only getting a little heat in her fingertips and a headache.

"It just don't work," Bonnie said.

"You don't have any trouble with candles, or other stuff," Damon said. He was referring to the log he had been sitting on when she got angry at him. He'd had to get up very fast and had rolled the log into the water before the flames could reach him.

Bonnie smiled. "Yeah, but when I don't have something to work with, it's like I'm trying too hard and it slips."

Damon was sitting on a boulder at the water's edge, tapping the rock with one hand while he watched her. "You've got to have enough energy to do that. Right now you're overextending yourself."

"You think I should what, have a sandwich and then throw fireballs?"

"Or I could take you out to lunch," Damon said.

"Why would you want me to throw fireballs at you later?" It did make sense, though, because she was working at something and it definitely took effort. "I'll start bringing a snack," Bonnie said and glanced at Damon. "What are you doing for food these days?" She hadn't heard about any animal attacks, and Caroline had been declaring her feminine independence for a whole month. Bonnie thought she was trying too hard, but that was Caroline's way, and so long as she wasn't chasing Damon vice versa, Bonnie was relieved.

"I don't have to look very hard for what I need," Damon said.

"Is that so?"

Damon grinned. "Yes." He shook off whatever was making him look so pleased with himself and hopped off the rock. "I think I know how you can fix this problem you're having."

"How?"

"You have to get used to reaching for things."

"Oh?" Bonnie asked.

"It's one thing to move a rock, it's another to manipulate elements that you can't see."

Conceding that she couldn't think of an easy answer, Bonnie motioned at him to share. "What do you suggest?"

"Do you still have that bullet I gave you?"

"Yeah." Bonnie slipped it out of her bag and Damon closed his hand around it. "I'm going to bury this somewhere within a couple feet of you and you've got to find it, without using your hands."

"Say what?"

"Think of it as a new kind of hide and go seek."

"Is this one of those things you did with that witch?"

"Not with her, but yeah, it was in San Francisco."

"Did it work?"

"It passed the time," Damon said.

"I have to close my eyes to do this, right?"

Damon stared at her as if she was being ridiculous. "Of course, where did you learn hide and seek?"

"Don't do anything funny," Bonnie said and shut her eyes. She heard leaves rustling and then Damon's voice.

"All right."

"This is crazy," Bonnie said, but took a step forward. "How am I supposed to find that bullet?"

"Do what comes naturally," Damon said.

"You really shouldn't go into motivational speaking."

"Go on."

For some reason that Bonnie couldn't explain, it felt better when she wasn't actually looking for the bullet, and so she unfocused her eyes and then took a step forward. It wasn't easy to figure out what she would do next, but as she moved slowly around the clearing, it was as if she was getting better at it. The sounds of the woods were more audible, and she could tell more stuff about where she was standing than she had thought. That didn't mean she was automatically an expert though, and one of her feet caught on a tree root. She would have tripped, but Damon's arm was suddenly there beside her, and she grabbed hold. When she blinked, looking at the world the usual way, she saw something she wasn't expecting. "Are you wearing eyeliner?"

Damon waited to see if she was steady on her feet and then he stepped back. "Yeah."

Bonnie kept staring. "Any particular reason?"

"I just felt like it today, what about you?"

"Guys don't usually wear makeup. Not unless they're Goths or gay."

"I'm a vampire, and I like girls," Damon said.

Discussing makeup with a vampire wasn't something that Bonnie had ever imagined she'd do, but since she'd realized she really was a witch, a lot had changed, and she went with it. "I know you like girls. Everybody who's seen you knows you like girls."

"I like a lot of things, I don't like to limit myself," Damon said. He gave her a lingering glance, and Bonnie felt her face warm.

"Um, yeah, enough of that. Was I even close?"

Damon bent down and unearthed the bullet. It was four feet away from Bonnie, and she groaned. "Hey, you're facing the right direction," Damon said. "I could tell, it was working."

"How do you know?"

Waving a hand in the air, Damon frowned. "It's like a charge, you know, like when a storm's about to hit, the pressure changes. Also, you smell spicier when you're using magic."

She didn't ask if he made a habit of smelling people, and hoped it wasn't just her. "Good to know," Bonnie said. She took the bullet from Damon and stuck it in her pocket. "Well, I think that's it for today."

"Okay." Damon kept a couple feet of distance between them but stared at her as usual.

"What do you do when you're not watching me set things on fire, or bothering Stefan?" Bonnie asked. "I mean, Stefan goes to school and hangs out with Elena, but that's boring for you."

"What are you getting at?" Damon asked.

"You seem like you've got to stay busy, otherwise you get bored."

"It's an issue," Damon said.

"Is that why you pick on Stefan?" Bonnie asked.

"That's part of him being my little brother."

Bonnie cleared her throat. "You take it a little further than that."

"According to whom? We're not like you, Bonnie, and we do things differently," Damon said.

"I know, but doesn't that ever get old?"

Damon thought it over for a second. "No."

"Somehow, I believe you," Bonnie said, and sighed. It wasn't worth getting annoyed about it, some people wouldn't change unless they wanted to, no matter what other people wanted. She was getting used to the fact that Damon didn't feel sorry for what he did, and wasn't going to apologize, so she didn't try and argue with him. "I can count on you causing trouble."

"It's kind of comforting, isn't it?"

"That's not what I was thinking, but okay, yes, it is, in a weird sort of way."

"Glad to help," Damon said and waited as she hefted her bag over her shoulder.

"See you around," Bonnie said.

Damon nodded. "Definitely."

When she first started getting help from Damon, she'd known that there were certain issues that might come up. The rules for vampires weren't entirely clear at times, but Bonnie had never wanted to invite Damon in, she knew better. She only trusted him to do what he wanted, and wasn't sure that he would consider anyone else. It had worked to set limits from the start, and Damon stayed on his side of that line, but repeatedly showed her that he knew exactly where the boundaries were, just because he could. That meant she had no interest in giving him a way to get at her or her family. But sometimes, she wondered what Damon would do if he got an invitation, and she had to remind herself that it would never come up.

They had been planning on meeting on a Friday, but Bonnie came down with the flu and stayed home from school. She didn't think she would be seeing Damon until the next week, but when she raised her head to glare at the crow who'd been cawing outside her window, she saw Damon perched on the windowsill.

"Hello," Damon said, and smiled.

"Hi," Bonnie said. She'd been asleep almost all day and her hair was a mess and she was wearing pajama pants and a long t-shirt. Being sick, she didn't care that she didn't look her best, but now, with Damon staring at her, Bonnie had to keep her herself from moving to fix her hair. She was very conscious of how tired and worn out she was and didn't even try to smile back. "You're here."

Damon dipped his head. "Well, you missed our date."

"We didn't have a date, we aren't dating, and there is no chance of us ever dating." Bonnie breathed out hard, and folded her arms, hoping that being sick and looking it would help maker her point.

Ignoring the dirty look she was giving him, Damon grinned. "As I was saying, you didn't keep our date."

"I thought you didn't like routine, that it was boring."

"Magic never is." Damon paused. "And witches deal in magic all the time."

"Are you saying that I'm unpredictable?" Bonnie chose her words carefully. "Interesting, even?"

"Would you like to be?" Damon was leaning against the window, and empty air. Basically, his shoulder was resting on the barrier that kept him out of the house, and it should have been uncomfortable, but he made it look natural.

"I know what happens to the girls that you think are interesting," Bonnie said. "It's not what I want."

"Caroline could never be called interesting," Damon said. "Not even entertaining."

"Right, because you were just after the crystal, and you used her to get it."

Damon's expression darkened for a second. "I didn't get to keep it." Then he smiled. "Besides, she did other things for me."

"I'm sure." Bonnie rubbed her arms. "Look, I'm still sick, and I want to get some sleep."

"Then go to bed," Damon said.

"Are you going to sit there and stare at me?"

"I haven't decided."

Bonnie didn't move, just so he knew that she wasn't impressed with the way he was leaning on thin air. "Well, don't, it's creepier than a lot of the other stuff you do, and it's not okay to spy on me."

"Then how will I know what you're doing?"

"You could try and ask me," Bonnie said and walked over to the window, stared at Damon for a second, and then pulled the curtains shut. His shadow was still there, and she heard him laugh, and then he was gone. That could have been the end of it, but for some reason, it stayed on Bonnie's mind as she tried to fall asleep later that night.

"Fine," she said to her reflection as she brushed her hair that morning. "It was weird, and almost nice of him to check on me, but that doesn't mean a thing." She pulled her hair back, frowned, and then took the barrettes out and decided to let her hair stay loose. Realizing what she was doing, thinking way too much about Damon while she worried about how she looked, Bonnie let out a disgusted sigh and turned away from the mirror.

"Have you ever watched the Discovery Channel and sort of gotten hypnotized by those programs on wild animals?" Bonnie asked Elena the next day.

Elena had been eying her sandwich doubtfully and didn't stop poking at the bread to look up. "I guess, sometimes. I like the stuff about penguins."

"Yeah, penguins are cute, but I'm talking about the specials on, I don't know, lions, or wolves. The ones where they corner their prey and play with them for hours before eating them."

That got Elena's attention and she raised her head to stare hard at Bonnie. "Are you feeling all right? You said you said you were all better."

"I'm fine." Bonnie picked at her own lunch and grimaced. "I just think it's something you have to remind yourself of, you know, in light of the kind of world we live in."

Elena put down her sandwich. "What's that?"

Bonnie lowered her voice. "Elena, your best friend is a witch, your boyfriend is a vampire, and his brother is a crazy vampire. I think you know what I mean."

"You're worried that Stefan is going to bite me? That's Damon's thing."

"But see, he hasn't, not since Caroline and Bonnie. Even though he's had all these chances, he's biding his time, waiting. He's hunting, and sooner or later he's going to go after his prey." Bonnie took a bite, chewing morosely. "We're doomed, I just thought you'd like to be reminded of that."

Not even trying to hide her confusion, Elena reached over and patted Bonnie's arm. "I think you need to go home sick."

"I'm fine," Bonnie said.

"We're doomed?" Elena asked.

"It helps keep things in perspective."

"Like what?"

Bonnie thought back to Damon making sure she didn't fall in the woods, showing up on her windowsill, and then of how sharp his teeth were when he bit her, and the scar on Caroline's shoulder. "How things really work."

"Okay." Elena still didn't look happy with Bonnie's answer, but she was willing to move on to problems that were easier to solve. "Do you think we should risk seeing what's on the menu?"

"How hungry are you?" Bonnie asked.

"We can combine our lunches and split them," Elena said.

"What happened, I thought you were this master chef?"

"That was one time, and it was out of a package, you know that." Elena cut her sandwich neatly in half and Bonnie passed over a portion of turkey loaf. "What about you, isn't Grams sending over meals?"

"I haven't needed as much help with you know, the magic stuff."

"You've got it under control? That's great."

"Yeah, I'm working on it," Bonnie said. She put a hand up to her neck and touched the faint scar there. She thought about the crystal that had been her ancestor's and also things that got passed on, whether people wanted them to be or not.

Bonnie was in the library, trying to study for finals when she sat up straighter and frowned. "I know you're there, Damon." She glanced around but didn't see anybody, and when nothing happened after a minute or so, she felt sort of stupid. Her phone vibrated, and she glanced down to see that she'd gotten a text. "Funny," she said and pushed her phone away. "I'm busy."

Damon was abruptly sitting at the table beside her, and Bonnie jumped slightly. "You certainly seem to be working hard on something, other than your magic."

"I've got to get this stuff figured out," Bonnie said, nodding at the books spread out in front of her.

"Calculus, and biology," Damon said, turning a few pages and shaking his head. "Amazing."

"What's that?"

"How little this generation actually knows."

"You're the one who was just texting me, I'd say we haven't done too badly."

Damon made a dismissive noise. "That's just machinery, and you didn't come up with it."

"Yeah, but we've come a long way since you were in school."

Glancing at her textbook, Damon snorted. "And yet you've gone backwards at the same time."

"If you're planning on hanging out and badmouthing my education, think of something else," Bonnie said.

"Fine," Damon said. "Let's see what you've learned." He turned several pages in one of the books and then looked up.

"Okay." Bonnie lifted her chin.

"What name did General Lee give the Confederate Army?"

Bonnie shrugged. "I don't know."

Damon gave her a long look. "When Lee took command, he called it the Army of Northern Virginia."

"Really." They had spent almost a month studying the Civil War, and Mr. Tanner hadn't been able to make the experience anything other than uncomfortable, both because of the subject matter and the fact that he spent more time bullying the class than he did teaching them. That didn't mean she didn't feel defensive as Damon went on, picking different events in history and quizzing her on her knowledge of them. Although she responded to a lot of the questions, Bonnie was left feeling as if she was found wanting, and resented it. "That's enough," she said finally, and Damon closed the book gently.

"When I was your age, Bonnie, I had to march over thirty miles a day so that I could fire a gun at somebody I'd never met."

"Yeah, you were fighting for the South, I know that." She clenched a fist. "Why?"

"It was something you were supposed to do," Damon said. "You've heard about the Conscription Act, right? All men of a certain age were required to fight."

"Is that the only reason?"

Damon traced a finger over the printed title on the cover of the book and then glanced up. "I told you, I get bored."

"What about Stefan?"

"He was too young to be drafted, and I was the oldest son," Damon said.

Bonnie tried to make out what Damon might be trying to say, and she thought that translating his way of talking could make for an interesting experiment, and a frustrating one. "What, we have to do some things, even if we don't want to?"

"You can try to be what other people think you should, with this stuff," Damon pushed the book toward Bonnie, "or you can go with what you're good at."

"For you that would be psychotic behavior?"

Damon didn't snap at her, but gave her one of his unnerving smiles instead.

Bonnie tried not to let it bother her, and grabbed her books and spread her notes out over most of the table. "I have to learn this stuff, all right?"

"Given what you've got to work with, I'm sure you'll do fine." Damon got up and Bonnie refused to even glare after him, but she did think about what they'd said to each other. Somewhere during the last week, she realized that she'd had Damon around a lot, and so he didn't provoke the same reaction as he used to. It was like walking into the woods at night and knowing that she could be in danger, but that she'd chosen to be there. That didn't mean she forgot a single thing, and when they were in public she wasn't any nicer to him, but she didn't object as much to him being inside her space. It helped when she reminded herself that they both knew she could set things on fire, and he might not be able to stop her in time. That gave her reason to smile when he was especially annoying.

She'd passed her mid terms and was thinking about doing something reckless in public when Damon showed up at the Grill. He came over to the booth she'd been sharing with Caroline, just after the blond left, and Bonnie shook her head. "Wow, what a coincidence, seeing you here."

Damon smiled as he set his glass down and took a seat. "I know, isn't it remarkable?"

"I'm reeling with amazement, now tell me what you want?"

"I could have been missing your charm and sweetness," Damon said.

"I don't believe that."

"Pity," Damon said and laid a book on the table in front of her.

"What's this?" Bonnie didn't reach out, she wanted to know what she was getting into before she accepted anything from him.

"It's a spell book."

"Where did you get it?" Bonnie asked.

Damon raised an eyebrow. "From a witch."

"They gave it to you?"

"Not really," Damon said.

"Yeah, and why should I take this?" Bonnie was a novice in magic, but she knew that doing something bad to somebody else would inevitably come back to bite you, no pun intended, and she wasn't looking to pick up any bad karma.

"So that it can be used the way you think it should be." He knocked back his drink and licked his lips.

Bonnie was dividing her attention between Damon and the book. "We both know how this works, what do you want for it?"

"There's a spell in there that I'd like you to do for me."

"Which one?"

"Not yet," Damon said. "When you're ready."

"You're being patient, why does that make me nervous?" Bonnie asked.

"Because you've got good instincts."

"Thanks, and you're creeping me out by being nice and stuff."

"I've found that women like to get gifts. It makes them more willing to do things for somebody else."

"There are so many things wrong with what you're implying, I don't know where to start," Bonnie said.

Damon snorted. "If I just wanted sex, I wouldn't have bothered."

Bonnie snorted. "Again, freaking me out is not the same as being comforting, are we clear?"

"Okay, I'm backing off." Damon smiled charmingly, and Bonnie winced.

"Do you ever mean anything you say?"

"More often than you think."

Bonnie stared at Damon, waiting for the mood to shift, and for him to say something that would make it normal, but he kept looking back, mouth curved the tiniest bit, and not backing down. "I don't know whether I believe you or not."

"That's a good policy," Damon said and slid out of the booth. "See you later, little witch."

"Don't call me that," Bonnie said, keeping her voice down because she had to, but glaring at him because they were in public and a spell would have gotten messy. Damon knew it too, and gave her a knowing smile as he left. "Blood sucker," Bonnie said to herself and reached out to touch the cover of the book hesitantly. After all the stuff she'd found out about her family and her powers, Bonnie didn't know if looking through somebody's spell book was like the witch equivalent of going through their house, but she also really wanted to know who this witch had been and what they'd done with their power.

She kept the book out of her Grams' sight, she was sure that it wouldn't go over well for her to be looking through it, not when she was supposed to be taking care not to do more than she was ready for. Even now when she'd done more things than Grams had thought she would be able to. Sometimes she brought it with her to school, slid carefully between her Biology and History books and pulled out during breaks and at Elena's house where it was accepted that she was studying magic along with everything else. Jenna didn't know of course, but Elena did and let Bonnie at two of her pillows, and Bonnie paid her back by not practicing her fledgling levitation talents on objects that were so heavy that they would break when they fell to the floor.

Stefan and Elena were doing their version of dating, which meant they spent a lot of time talking to each other and kissed, some, but as Elena said, they hadn't gone any further, not without second guessing themselves. It was sweet, but at times Bonnie wondered whether being that old just meant you had forgotten that there were things that could wait forever, and others that could be hurried along.

"I can't believe you're telling me to seduce him," Elena said, holding up a top for Bonnie's judgment.

"Yes, that's fine, and I can't believe that you still haven't even got more than that boy's shirt off. How long has it been?"

Elena blushed. "You know why I've been careful."

"I do, you're waiting for the stars to align and the world to announce that now is the perfect moment to sleep with Stefan Salvatore," Bonnie said dramatically, flicking sparks off her fingers at Elena.

"Stop that."

"Only if you promise not to be so ridiculous."

"I'm being careful, that's what you told me, remember?" Elena tugged the shirt over her head, voice muffled for a second.

"You're doing a great job, the next step is a purity ring," Bonnie said.

"Can you conjure one up for me?" Elena asked, brushing her hair out of her face and narrowing her eyes at Bonnie.

"Funny."

"Honestly, Bonnie, do you want me to throw myself at the vampire?"

"This vampire? Yes, I can say that you've got a good reason to." She pretended to be thinking it over. "Now, if you were taking about going after Damon-"

"Oh, don't even go there," Elena said.

"What if you did?" Bonnie asked. She'd thought about it once or twice, when she was really tired and lonely, and just wondered what it might be like. Then, sanity had restored itself, usually in the form of Damon talking, or smirking, and she was back to thinking about setting his clothes on fire or knocking him into the river.

Elena sat down at her dresser as if she couldn't deal with the idea while standing up. "Are you kidding?"

"No?" Bonnie tried to keep herself from giving anything away, like her own conflicted feelings on the subject.

"Bonnie, nobody is crazy enough to get involved with Damon, and after what he did to you, and Caroline, he's lucky that she didn't tell her mother to have him arrested."

"She'd better not try, Damon likes things to be complicated and he'll make them that way if they aren't already." Elena's expression was sour, and Bonnie knew that she had to be thinking of things she had kept from her friends so that they would be safe.

"Bonnie, do you like Damon?" Elena asked the question the way she would have when they were in junior high.

"What?" Bonnie blinked and shook her head rapidly. "No, that's crazy."

"Then why are we talking about him so much?" Elena asked

"Are we?"

"Come on, you wanted to know if I was going to dump my sane boyfriend and date somebody who likes to kill people."

"He doesn't care about what people expect of him," Bonnie said.

"That's putting it nicely," Elena said, and gave Bonnie a considering look. "How much time do you spend with Damon?"

"I don't know, probably more than I need to."

"Why do you let him hang around at all?"

"He has a useful perspective," Bonnie said, and knew it sounded weak.

"A psycho's point of view is never something you need," Elena said.

"Not that, him being a vampire means he knows things."

"Yeah, but Stefan is a vampire too, and he doesn't think that it's okay to hurt people." Elena stared at Bonnie. "I can't get over the fact that you've been letting Damon get to you."

"Nobody has ever had that right and he's not going to be the first," Bonnie said.

Elena came over and gave Bonnie a hug. "That's a relief."

"Let's talk about something else," Bonnie said. "As in, you are not going to leave the house without pants." She nodded at Elena's bare legs and Elena sighed and went to her closet again.

"You got me in trouble," Bonnie said, standing next to Damon's car outside the Grill and wishing she was somewhere else so that she could throw something sharp at him.

"How did I do that?" Damon leaned over and opened the door. "Come on, I'll give you a ride home."

"What are you even doing here? You don't eat regular meals or anything."

"No, but I do drink, and it helps to be seen doing things like that in public." Damon rolled his eyes. "I know you walked because your car broke down."

"How do you know that?"

"I hear things."

"And that should make me want to let you take me home?"

Damon glanced away. "If it'll make you feel better, you can walk, I don't care."

The car door was open, and as Bonnie considered the offer, she heard thunder in the distance. As she climbed into the car, she gave Damon a stern look. "I'm only doing this because I forgot my umbrella."

"Lucky me," Damon said and started the engine. "Now, how did I get you in trouble?"

"I was talking to Elena-"

"Oh, that's not good, you know what a little girl talk leads to? Second opinions, helpful advice, all dangerous."

"Says the vampire to the witch," Bonnie said. "Where did you get this car?" She reached out and began switching radio stations.

"The same place I get most things," Damon said and grinned. He watched Bonnie fiddle with the radio for a little longer and then reached out and moved her hand gently aside. "What did Elena say?"

"She's worried about me."

"Why? You can set things on fire with your mind. That's a pretty useful skill."

"Really, though, would it do any good?" Bonnie glanced out the window and then back at Damon. "I mean, that's what Elena was saying. Even if I can do stuff like that, you're still who you are, and that's not a nice person."

"When you say that so righteously it's like having Elena in the car with us," Damon said and made a face. "If I wanted her here, she would be."

Bonnie laughed. "Elena wouldn't ever get in a car with you."

"It's a shame, because this is a very nice car," Damon said.

"Yeah, and the driver is such a gentleman."

"I can be nice."

Bonnie let out a giggle, but stifled it. "I don't believe that."

"I choose to be honest," Damon said. "And speaking of honesty, my usually forthright brother is having a bit of trouble coming out and asking me what's going on between us."

"There's nothing to tell."

"Despite what you say, it seems that Stefan has been discussing this very seriously with Elena."

"What?" Bonnie's mouth fell open. "How do you know?"

"She comes over, they sit on the couch and glare at me suspiciously whenever I come into the room, and, I heard your name mentioned a few times."

Bonnie covered her face with her hands, and Damon went on, until Bonnie couldn't take any more. "Stop it, just, that's it. They're trying to be our parents."

"I didn't listen to my father when he was alive, Stefan knows he hasn't got a chance now," Damon said.

Hearing what Damon thought of the good intentions of other people was sometimes a horrifying revelation, and then again, it was also normal. "Somehow that makes you really happy."

"It does."

"He wants you to be careful of people."

"Yeah, because I've cared what he's said all those times before," Damon said.

Bonnie gave Damon a sideways look. "You don't care at all?"

"Not even a tiny bit."

"For you to bother Stefan for so long, you have to want something from him," Bonnie said.

"He's my little brother."

"Yeah, but you don't act like it."

Damon lifted one shoulder slightly as he turned the wheel and brought the car into Bonnie's driveway.

"I can't tell if you're looking out for Stefan in a really strange way, or if this is how you keep busy."

"I like to be ambiguous," Damon asked.

"That's disturbing," Bonnie said and patted Damon on the arm. "Which is right in line with the rest of you." She leaned down to grab her bag, and as she sat up, Damon was a lot closer, giving her a smile. "What?" Bonnie asked. "Thanks for the ride."

"It was my pleasure."

Bonnie hopped out and as she slung her bag onto her shoulder, she argued silently with herself and then kissed Damon quickly on the cheek. "If you brag about that to your brother or Elena, I will light you up like a torch." Then she turned and walked to her door and went inside.

Mystic Falls had several traditions, and one of them was apparently being a supernatural hot spot. Because of this, they had more than a few vampires come into town, most of them uninvited, and Damon and Stefan had the job of keeping them from doing any harm. Those they couldn't chase off, they killed. It got so that they had a routine that worked very well, and they were so good at it that Elena began to worry. She and Stefan argued about it, that Bonnie knew, and at one point, after they all had dinner at her house, Elena was very blunt about what she thought should be done.

"Let Damon take care of them, it's not like he minds hurting other vampires."

Stefan had been picking up the plates from dinner, and he stopped in the doorway to the kitchen, and then moved, his back rigid. Elena went after him, not even giving Bonnie a glance.

"We should go," Bonnie said, and Damon sighed.

"Just when it was getting entertaining."

"Yeah, you don't get to have any fun, now come on." Bonnie nudged him, and when he didn't move, she grabbed his arm and tugged. Letting out a gusty breath, Damon went along with Bonnie and they slid their coats on as the noise from the kitchen got louder.

Bonnie's hair was stuck under her collar, and as she went to free it, Damon's hand was already there. Bonnie stayed still as she smoothed it down, and then she stepped forward.

Elena's voice rose sharply and Damon whispered. "Shall we make our fearful exit?"

"Shut up and let's go," Bonnie said and they hurried out. She had brought her car, but she didn't know how Damon had gotten to Elena's house or how he was going to get home. "Do you mind being the town's enforcer?"

"I'm not protecting the town."

"Then what are you doing?"

"Whatever I want," Damon said and took a deep breath. "I think I'll find my own way."

"I'm sure you will," Bonnie said and thought it over. "Don't kill anybody you don't need to."

Damon grinned as he stepped up to Bonnie, and brushed a finger over her nose. "See you later, little witch." Then he disappeared.

Bonnie still didn't know if he could fly or he just moved so fast it seemed like it, but she didn't waste time looking around for him. Instead, she rolled up her window and headed home, the wind on her face as light as Damon's finger and just as cold.


	2. Chapter 2

Even when Bonnie's life was changing in ways she had no clue how to deal with, there were constants. One of them was her social life, or how she kept her family from being involved in it. On the list of awkward conversations she never wanted to have, Bonnie counted anything having to do with dating to be kept far away from Grams because she had certain opinions. As Bonnie grew into her power, Grams began to have more to say about Bonnie's future in a way she hadn't ever before. Bonnie tried to appreciate it, but sometimes she felt like it was only since she'd proved that she had magical abilities that Grams wanted much to do with her.

"She thinks that I need to come over all the time," Bonnie said, staring morosely at the pile of textbooks in front of her. She was supposed to be studying at Caroline's house, but the two of them had given up on History when they saw how long the study guide turned out to be. Instead, they were giving each other manicures.

Caroline shrugged. "To what, commune with the spirits?" She held up a bottle of nail polish, frowned, and put it back in exchange for another one.

"That's advanced magic, and we already did that, remember? I ended up possessed." She grimaced. "I still haven't told her everything that happened that night."

"Well, at least it was one of your ancestors that took over your body," Caroline said and motioned for Bonnie to extend her hand.

Bonnie glared at Caroline, but put her hand out. "Yes, that makes me feel much better. I still have no idea what she really wanted, or if she might be able to come back."

Caroline ignored Bonnie's expression and eyed her fingernails critically before attacking them with a file. "Can't you ask somebody about it? Like Elena?"

"She already told me everything she'd been able to figure out," Bonnie said.

"That wasn't enough?" Caroline asked.

It had been more than Bonnie ever wanted to know about the Salvatore brothers, the supernatural, and then there had been more. "Yeah, but it didn't make me feel any better."

"So you've got Grams at you to find a nice boy witch, and you're keeping stuff from her too." Caroline shook her head. "No wonder you don't want to spend the night at her house." She uncapped a bottle of nail polish decisively, and Bonnie sighed.

"Sorry to bother you."

"No, it's fine, you've been getting into this witch stuff, and that's great." Caroline glanced away.

"I know it's not what you wanted to talk about tonight," Bonnie said, and propped her head on her free hand. "So, how is it going with you and Matt?"

"I don't know, we hang out," Caroline said and gave Bonnie's nails her full attention.

"That's not all you've been doing," Bonnie said.

"What do you mean?"

"I know you, Caroline. You don't just hang out with guys, there has to be more in it for you."

Caroline gave her a blank look and Bonnie rolled her eyes.  
"Boy, girl, sex, remember?"

"Yeah, but that hasn't been going so well for me. Damon was a huge mistake, and I just want to forget I ever had anything to do with him."

"He hasn't been bothering you, has he?" Bonnie asked. She still was angry when she saw how Damon had hurt Caroline, even if she seemed like she was mostly over what had happened. Somehow, being around Damon made her forget a little bit, just what he had done, but only for a while. Caroline didn't remember everything he had done to her, and that was good in a way, but Bonnie also wondered if knowing wouldn't help her move on and heal.

"No, I don't really see him much anymore," Caroline said. "Unless he's, you know, at Elena's house, and that doesn't happen a lot."

"You're right, Elena doesn't spend time with him if she can help it."

"I wonder why Stefan doesn't just tell him to leave Mystic Falls," Caroline said.

"Damon is his brother."

"Yeah, and he's a creep."

"That's common knowledge," Bonnie said.

"No, it's really not," Caroline said.

Bonnie frowned. "I know he acts normal most of the time, he gets away with a lot."

"Yeah, and it's like people can't see it," Caroline said.

"You didn't," Bonnie pointed out, and Caroline sniffed disdainfully.

"Well, how could I?"

"But you know better now," Bonnie said, watching Caroline for any sign that she might still be thinking that she needed to prove something by getting into a confrontation with a vampire. Bonnie had been a victim of Damon's temper, and even though she was getting better at handling him, and she stayed on her guard no matter what, particularly for the sake of people who weren't in on the big secret.

"You bet I do," Caroline said, and gestured for Bonnie to put her other hand out. "Somebody is going to let him know what a jerk he is, and I hope I get to see it."

Anybody that could get the better of Damon would either be doing it to help him, or because they had a bigger plan. Given the history of the town, and that it attracted weird stuff, Bonnie didn't think that either scenario would end well for anyone.

"Why would you even bother?" Bonnie asked, trying for the right amout of disinterest while Caroline swiped the brush neatly over one nail after another.

"You're right," Caroline said as she switched bottles. "He's not worth it."

"Well, not that much trouble anyway," Bonnie said. If anybody found out that she'd been getting help from Damon, even if she was benefiting, there would be all kinds of problems. Him paying attention to her was normal, Damon did that with anyone who was mildly interesting, but anything else was definitely going to make people think that Bonnie was being controlled by Damon. Which, she knew, was a possibility, but she was beginning to resent that nobody thought she could take care of herself. She wasn't anywhere near as powerful as Emily Bennett had been, but she was learning fast, and wasn't going to let herself be pushed around.

"So why are you two hanging out?" Caroline asked, and Bonnie was caught flat footed.

"What?"

Caroline had finished painting Bonnie's nails and she leaned back, crossing her arms over her chest. "Bonnie Bennett, I've known you since preschool, don't try and tell me that you aren't doing something with Damon."

"We're not dating," Bonnie said.

"Then what?"

"He's helping me with the witch stuff."

"How? What's he got that makes him so good at it?"

Bonnie still couldn't tell if Caroline knew what Damon was, but she didn't want her friend to get in this any deeper. "He's picked up a lot."

"Yeah, he's been around." Caroline stared at Bonnie. "You still think he's bad news, but you aren't staying away."

"I'm not."

"One of us needs a reality check, and I don't think it's me," Caroline said.

"For a change," Bonnie said, and Caroline shoved her backwards on the bed. "Hey, watch it, you're going to mess up all your hard work."

"So will you getting hurt." Caroline was serious, which only happened when things were going wrong, and Bonnie had been paying attention, and had been expecting this for awhile.

"I won't, Caroline."

"Most boys don't mean to break your heart, but Damon doesn't even have one, and wouldn't notice."

"You're putting Damon in the same category as Tyler?" Bonnie asked.

"No, Damon gets his own category, because he's that much of a bastard," Caroline said, and for a second looked fierce, the way she used to when she wanted something badly enough to ignore Bonnie's advice. "Does Elena know that you're going after her boyfriend's brother?"

"She's guessed," Bonnie said. "We both got invited over for dinner, and she's been trying to work her way up to giving me a lecture about him."

"Well, at least I got there first," Caroline said, pleased in spite of what they were talking about, and Bonnie sighed.

"This isn't another competition, and I don't need saving."  
"Oh yes you do," Caroline said resolutely, and now Bonnie really was worried, because if Caroline and Elena set their minds to do something, she would be caught in the middle.

"Caroline, I'm fine, and I don't need help with Damon."

"If he was anybody else it might be fun," Caroline said, and let out a heavy breath. "You aren't going to stop? The magic, I mean."

"No, I need to figure it out what I can do, because it's a part of me, and I can't pretend it's not. I know that might not make sense to you, and that Damon isn't helping me because he's a good guy, but I knew that when I asked him."

Sitting on the foot of the bed, Caroline pulled her knees up to her chest, and kept watching Bonnie. "You're sure you have to do this."

"Yes."

"Okay." Caroline nodded several times and then hopped up.

"That's it?"

"I think you're making a mistake, but I won't stop you." Caroline grabbed Bonnie suddenly and hugged her. "But if Damon hurts you, I am going to find a way to make him pay, got it?"

Bonnie patted Caroline's shoulder. "I do, now let go, I need to breathe."

Caroline sat back, brushed her hair out of her face and was all business. "All right, so I was thinking, we should get tattoos."

"Right, because our parents would love that, and it's completely legal," Bonnie said and settled in for a long argument about rebellion and self expression with relief.

"I have just about had it," Bonnie said when Damon showed up at her window the next night.

Damon frowned. "With what?"

"I just got lectured by my other best friend on watching out for what you might do to me."

"Caroline is warning you off?"

Bonnie tugged the shade all the way up and leaned on the inner edge of the windowsill. It was becoming the way they talked when they weren't in public. She had insisted that her bedroom was not somewhere that Damon could just expect to be invited, and he let it go. She wasn't sure whether he was amused by her setting boundaries, or if he was trying to be respectful, just for a change of pace.

"Yeah, and she was the first one to actually say that she could tell we were hanging out and that she thinks there's something going on."

"What did you tell her?"

"That nothing was happening."

"Oh?" Damon asked, and put his hand on the window frame, and seemed to be staring at her mouth.

"Yes, that's what I said." Bonnie felt her cheeks get warm and was sure that Damon could hear her heart beating faster.

"Okay," Damon said.

Clearing her throat, Bonnie pushed her hair out of her face. "Did you need to talk to me about something?"

"Just the usual." Damon wiggled his fingers at her. "Witch-y things."

"Nothing else?"

"Do you always suspect me of having a secret agenda?"

"Pretty much," Bonnie said. "Is there a reason you didn't want to wait until Thursday? Does it have to do with vampires that showed up the other night?" Bonnie hadn't seen them, but she'd gotten the story second hand from Elena, which had led to that argument the other night.

"It does," Damon said and shifted his weight slightly. "You know about the Salvatore family history."

"Elena told me everything Stefan's told her, and what you've said too." Some of their stories had matched up, but there were little differences, and places where details were added to one account and not the other. That was the way a lot of information came from Damon and Stefan, and there was no way to tell who was telling the truth, aside from the obvious assumption that Damon would say what would help him.

"I figured as much, and that means you know what happened."

"There were a bunch of vampires in Mystic Falls, and a couple of witches. The rest of the town got tired of them and fought back. The first families banded together and formed a lynching party, but they called it the Founders Council, and are keeping the tradition alive today."

There was a lot that Bonnie guessed was being left out of Damon's story, and this was the first time she'd heard about the Council, but she wasn't convinced. "No, see that's where creative editing isn't your friend, because the truth is that the humans were the ones that started it."

"They were probably scared," Bonnie said.

"That doesn't mean that they had the right to do what they did," Damon said. "What happened to Emily, and all the others, that's the fault of the Founders Council."

Bonnie narrowed her eyes at him, remembering how upset Damon had been that night in the woods when Emily broke her promise to him. "You want to get back at them."

Damon smiled, and at that moment, Bonnie was glad that he hadn't been invited into her house. "Can you blame me?"

"No, but these people, this town, they're not the same ones that hurt you."

"They would do it all over again, it's what the Council is meant for, to keep people like you and me from being happy."

"I've seen what happens to people after you've had a good time, and I'm not going to help you do that to anybody else," Bonnie said.

"I haven't ask you to."

"No, but you're working up to it, aren't you? That's what all of this special tutoring is about? You've got to have a witch around for whatever, and you're running out of time, that's why these other vampires have showed up."

Damon looked at Bonnie sideways and smiled. "I see you've been thinking about this a lot."

"When you're dealing with vampires who don't have any scruples you have to be looking at the big picture," Bonnie said.

"As opposed to dealing with Stefan." Damon's expression was serious.

"Look, I know you hate hearing that, but I know you both, and it's hard not to make comparisons."

"I'm not always the one that you have to watch out for," Damon said.

"No, I get that, but why are these other vampires showing up all of a sudden?" Bonnie asked. "Does it have to do with everything that's happened?"

"They're connected."

"How?"

"There are certain times when the world aligns itself just right, and all kinds of things can happen," Damon said.

"Like the comet," Bonnie said.

"That's one of them. You started coming into your power around that time, and you're not the only one that's been changing."

"I know, the whole town has been on edge since the first attack."

Damon shook his head "Not that, the Founders Council has known what's been going on since the beginning."

"So why did you come back if they would come after you?"

"They don't know that Stefan and I are vampires," Damon said.

"Why not? You were in Mystic Falls when all of this started, aren't there any records?" Bonnie asked.

"Yes, but who's going to believe that we're the original Salvatore brothers? All we have to do is say that we're their descendants, and nobody can prove otherwise."

"But, they might be able to, if they keep looking into who you really are."

"Why would they?" Damon asked. "Stefan is just another high school student, and I'm a fine upstanding citizen. One that's helped Sheriff Forbes with the vampire problem."

Bonnie sighed resignedly. "You've got them right where you want them."

"For the most part."

"The other vampires aren't here because you called them up and said you wanted to hang out," Bonnie said. Damon didn't seem like he was very social, unless he needed to be.

"I don't do that much."

"You don't have that many friends, do you?" Bonnie asked.

"I've never seen the need," Damon said.

"Not even when you were living here before the war?"

Damon shrugged and didn't look upset by the thought.

"Then what are you doing with me?" Bonnie asked.

"There are other things to be besides friends," Damon said.

"Is that what you think we are?"

"You tell me. According to you, we're something nicely undefined."

"I said there was nothing hinky going on."

"Did I say there was going to be?" Damon asked.

"You are the definition of hinkiness," Bonnie said, and Damon smiled.

"There might not be many people that I want to associate with, but that doesn't mean I mind spending time with a few individuals."

Bonnie was doubtful. "Leaving me out of this, give me an example."

Damon had to think about it, which didn't come as a shock, but what did was that Damon had an answer, which did surprise her.

"I lived in a loft above a store run by a couple of witches for a few months."

"They let you get that close?" Bonnie asked.

"I don't have a problem with witches," Damon said.

"Aside from attacking us when we don't do what you want."

"When they go back on their promises, then I have objections."

"Sounds like a good reason not to make a deal with you."

"I kept my side of the deal," Damon said. "You wouldn't even be alive if I hadn't been looking out for your ancestors." He wasn't smiling, and it felt like there were things welling up that he was holding back, and it made Bonnie nervous.

"It got bad?" Bonnie asked.

"Yeah," Damon said shortly.

"We learned about the Battle of Willow Creek in class, but there isn't anything in the Founders Archives about vampires."

"The war was a convenient way to conceal what they did," Damon said. "Nobody ever held them responsible."

"That's what would have happened if you opened the tomb under Fell's Church," Bonnie said. "Emily stopped you."

"She broke her word, but that's not going to stop what's coming."

"How's that?" Bonnie asked.

"Logan Fell was a vampire. Since neither Stefan or I brought him over, there has to be at least one more vampire hiding out in Mystic Falls."

Bonnie caught her breath. "You don't know who it is?"

"I know who I'd like it to be," Damon said. "But, no, they're keeping out of the way, which means that they have plans for this town."

'Which you're going to go along with."

"Who says?"

"I don't think this other vampire is going to be any happier with the Founders Council than you are," Bonnie said.

Damon showed his teeth. "Oh, I hope not."

"I can't help you with any of this," Bonnie said. "I won't be your witch flunky, or whatever it's called-"

"Handmaiden," Damon said.

"Fine, handmaiden, whatever. It's not right, and I don't want to hurt people with my magic."

"What if they're going to hurt you?" Damon asked.

"I've lived here my whole life, nobody here is going to do anything to me," Bonnie said.

"They like you now, but if they knew that you were a witch, they would be afraid of you, and that leads to being burned at the stake."

"Grams told me never to let anybody know that I was a witch," Bonnie said.

"She's right, you're safe so long as nobody finds out."

"Are you going to tell them?"

"Why would I do that?" Damon asked.

Bonnie rolled her eyes at what he was obviously not saying. "I don't want to help you."

"I know, but I can't make you."

"Would you if you could?" Bonnie asked. She wasn't sure why she asked, but the question made Damon rear back slightly and stare at her.

"It would make life a lot simpler if everybody just did what I wanted." He didn't take his eyes off her, and then shook his head. "No, I don't think I would."

"Why not?"

"I kind of like it when a pretty girl talks back to me," Damon said and put a hand on the barrier that kept him out of the house.

He was being charming again, and Bonnie let out giggle, even though she knew that she should disapprove. "Is that right?"

"It can be very enjoyable." Damon paused. "For both of us."

"Thanks, but even being creepily sweet isn't going to change my mind this time," Bonnie said and got up.

"All right," Damon said.

"Does this mean you don't want to meet up anymore?"

"Did I say that?"

"No, but I thought that since I'm not up for your revenge scheme that you wouldn't want to hang around. It's not like you're getting anything out of it." Bonnie smoothed down her pajamas unconsciously, and caught Damon's eyes following the movement of her hands. "Stop that."

"I am getting something out of this arrangement," Damon said. "I'll see you on Thursday." He stepped backwards on the roof, and then went over the side, and a crow flew off toward the woods.

"Why do I feel like I didn't set any limits?" Bonnie asked her empty room, and went to bed remembering the way Damon hadn't looked away once while they were talking, and what he wanted, if Bonnie wasn't going to help him get revenge. She was almost positive she could guess what he was after, and still had trouble believing that it didn't scare her away. Thursday was only two days away, and she was looking forward to it.

At school, Caroline and Elena pounced on Bonnie and refused to let her out of their sight. It was endearing that they both had decided that she needed to be taken care of, but she really didn't need all that mothering, and only lasted until third period before she told them as much.

"You have to stay away from him," Elena said stubbornly.

"He makes you do things that you shouldn't want to," Caroline said.

Bonnie put a hand to her forehead. "I know, I know."

"So why are you still seeing him?" Caroline asked, and Elena blinked as Bonnie groaned.

"Seeing him? I thought they were just meeting up on accident."

"Oh no, it's way past that," Caroline said.

"Caroline Forbes," Bonnie said.

"Don't even try and deny it, I can see it all over you. He's gotten into your head, hasn't he? With his smile and his blue eyes and his-" Caroline clamped her mouth shut as Bonnie and Elena waited for her to finish.

"And his what?" Elena asked.

"You know what I'm talking about," Caroline said, and blushed.

"No, I don't think so." Bonnie wrinkled her nose. "His car?"

"That doesn't fool me, Bonnie, and don't try and turn this around. You like Damon, and that is a very bad thing, as the two of you tried to tell me." Caroline sniffed. "I've seen the light, and I've moved on to better things."

"Like Matt?" Elena asked.

"Hey, you weren't using him, and he's too sweet not to."

"Boys are not library books," Elena said. "Be careful with Matt."

"Don't worry, I know what to do with Matt," Caroline said. "Unlike you, Bonnie, and don't think that we're going to let this go."

"I get it, you're worried about me, but I'm not the only one who isn't totally against the idea of Damon being around." Bonnie gave Elena a significant look. "You've had him over to your house for dinner. Does he even eat?"

"He and Stefan drink. A lot, sometimes," Elena said.

"Okay, but why do they have to do that with people?" Caroline asked, arms folded across her chest as she stared at Elena, who shrugged.

"They're being social."

"Damon wouldn't know how to do that if you trained him," Caroline said, and twined her arm with Bonnie's, and they headed to their next class, the subject closed for the time being, and Bonnie thought she could relax a little.

Bonnie found out that Stefan had been by to talk to Grams when she was met at the door with a blank look and a calm "Vampires?"

She would have tried to escape, but was tugged inside instead. "Oh?" Bonnie asked, but Grams wasn't fooled.

"Stefan Salvatore came over today."

"That was nice of him."

"Well, that depends on whether you want to know what he had to say." Grams gazed at Bonnie levelly. "Maybe you can guess."

"I wouldn't even know where to start," Bonnie said, and the evening only got worse from there. She promised herself that she would talk to Stefan as soon as possible and tell him to give her a heads up when he had the urge to share his life story with people.

"What kind of secret gets passed around?" Bonnie asked Damon when they met up and were, by silent agreement, avoiding everyone else in town.

"One that might as well be common knowledge," Damon said.

"Grams won't tell anyone about you guys. Even if Sheriff Forbes didn't think she was sort of crazy, you're in her good graces, why would she suspect you of doing anything bad?"

"Paranoia doesn't breed close friendships," Damon said. "Something has to give, and it's going to happen any day now." Damon lifted his head. "You can feel it too."

Bonnie nodded, she had been twitchy all week and was getting good at being able to tell when that had something to do with her powers, and when it was just knowing the way things should be, and they hadn't been right since the beginning of the school year. "Did you come back because you knew this was going to happen or are you and Stefan responsible?"

"Probably a bit of both," Damon said.

"That's not an answer," Bonnie said.

"No, it's just not the one you'd like to hear."

"Yeah, not so much." Bonnie slumped back against the bench she was sitting on, and Damon perched on the back, somehow balancing there, as if he didn't have to deal with the same rules of nature, and that made sense, but it still caught Bonnie's attention.

Damon smiled. "How about we change the subject."

"Okay." Bonnie narrowed her eyes. "What do you suggest?"

"Levitation." Damon gestured to his position, and Bonnie raised an eyebrow.

"I've done that."

"You've floated leaves and rocks, but how about something more fun?"

"Like you?"

"Where's the motivation in that?" Bonnie asked.

"Do you really need a reason?"

Bonnie hadn't wanted to hear a lot of what Grams had to say when it came to vampires, but it had been educational. "I don't know that I should."

"You're having second thoughts," Damon said.

"I'm just not sure I'm ready."

"Yeah, you are." Damon eyed her, the way she had hunched over and hopped off the bench and landed on the ground. "Stefan will be happy to hear you've come to your senses." He bowed to Bonnie, and then vanished.

It was probably the right thing to do, and definitely what her Grams would say she should have done in the first place, but when Damon was gone, Bonnie wasn't completely sure that it was what she wanted.

Elena noticed right away that there had been a change, and she pulled Bonnie aside during lunch. "What did he do?"

"Who?"

"Damon, he's the one who's made you mad, right?"

"Surprisingly, he is not the Salvatore that I'm upset with," Bonnie said, and Elena did a double take.

"What happened?"

"Stefan went to talk to Grams."

"Why?"

"He wanted to get the help of a powerful witch, and since I'm still learning, he went to Grams for advice."

"Advice on what?"

"Oh, just what to do if you're one of two brothers who happen to be vampires, and your brother wants to let a bunch of vengeful vampires loose on a town." Bonnie smiled. "You know, small talk."

"He told her?"

"I guess. Grams told me everything when I walked in the door the other night, and she passed along a lot about vampires and Mystic Falls."

"Stefan already told us those things."

"No, she had another perspective, and told me what Stefan left out."

"For instance?" Elena asked, looking concerned.

"A few small details, like how the whole town was onto the vampires, and anybody else who wasn't completely normal. They tried to scare them away, and when that didn't happen, they killed as many as they could." Bonnie took a fortifying breath and went on. "We just assumed that Emily and Katherine weren't close, but Emily gave Katherine that necklace. For a witch to put so much power into an object means a lot. She was trying to protect her."

"Then how did Damon get the necklace?" Elena asked.

"Katherine must have given it to him before she was sealed inside Fell's Church." Bonnie ran a finger over her notebook. "It wasn't only the vampires that people went after, and that made it easy to overlook stuff for survival's sake."

Elena shook her head. "Like what?"

"Damon saved Emily's family. He made sure that they got out when the town was burning."

"Even so, he shouldn't be a hero, he's killed a lot of people."

"I'm not saying he's a good guy, but he isn't always the only one to blame," Bonnie said.

"But now he's trying to start a war," Elena said. "Nobody in Mystic Falls cared about vampires until he came back."

"The timing is right for somebody to bring all that up again, and Grams said that the Salvatores aren't alone."

"Great." Elena pushed her hair behind her ears. "Meaning that all the vampires are here for a reason."

"Yeah, and since I doubt that Damon has a vampire phone tree that he activates when he's lonely-" Bonnie said, letting her words trail off, and Elena grimaced.

"I don't see him having many friends, but I get what you're saying. Logan Fell was a vampire, and since Stefan and Damon didn't do it, that leaves somebody else."

"Exactly," Bonnie said.

"Now I'm freaked out," Elena said. "Did Grams have any idea who it could be?"

"She isn't sure," Bonnie said, but she had been turning over all the facts for awhile, and one of the possibilities was presenting itself with disturbing clarity.

Elena had reached a similar conclusion, and stared at Bonnie. "Emily made sure nobody could get in or out of the church, so it can't be Katherine."

Bonnie put a hand on Elena's arm. "If anybody could do this much damage, without going after Damon or Stefan, it would be her."

"They don't know that for sure."

"Damon hopes so," Bonnie said. When he had been held back from Emily by a wall of fire, Damon had been crazed, frantic to see that his deal with her was kept, and when she had done the opposite, the attack had been automatic. Whatever Katherine and her friends had done to the town, and to the Salvatores, at least one of them still wanted her around. Which made Bonnie and everybody else a means to an end.

"She'll kill everyone," Elena said, and then corrected herself. "Or, just the Founders Council and anybody who's too close to Stefan or Damon."

"Like you," Bonnie said.

"If Katherine is back, then she isn't going to want to do anything that would push Stefan or Damon away from her." Elena grimaced. "But I bet she doesn't consider murder to be a problem."

"Either that or she'll get somebody else to do it for her, and keep her hands clean," Bonnie said.

"This sounds like the plot of a movie," Elena said.

"That doesn't mean it couldn't be what's going on."

"I know, we've seen crazier things around here, what are you trying not to tell me?"

"All we ever do is try and keep up with vampires and everything else," Bonnie said. "It's like we can't get ahead."

"It's not a race," Elena said, and then sighed. "No, it is, you're right. These vampires are trying to get back at the town for what happened over a hundred years ago, and we have to figure out what they're going to do before it's too late." She glanced up when the bell sounded overhead and grabbed Bonnie's sleeve. "We're going to have to plot later, if we're late to History, then Mr. Saltzman is going to be upset."

"Oh no," Bonnie said, but went along when Elena tugged again.

Mr. Saltzman moved slowly around the room, hands tucked in his pockets as he spoke. "Today we're going to talk about the idea of pride, how it relates to people and events that resonate even years later. Can you guys think of any examples?"

The entire class stared at Mr. Saltzman, and he waved his hands in the air. "You live in a town with some rich history, I know you've heard enough about it to have some ideas."

Elena and Bonnie had been exchanging looks after they took their seats, and they faced forward again as Mr. Saltzman began walking up and down the aisles. When he came to a halt, it was between Matt and Stefan's desks.

"Mr. Donovan, Mr. Salvatore, what are your thoughts?"

Matt sat up and unfolded his arms. "Well, people like to be connected to each other, and sometimes they do that by identifying with famous people. They think they're the same, or they can be like them."

"Do they ever take it a step further?" Mr. Saltzman turned to Stefan, and both Bonnie and Elena tensed slightly. It wasn't weird that the teacher was focusing on any one student, it was part of his style, and it wasn't malicious, but this time felt different.

"Sure, a person can become obsessed with anything, and that might lead them to make mistakes." Stefan met Mr. Saltzman's stare without flinching, and it was like he was daring the man to ask another question.

"Very good, Stefan, you're right, obsession can be dangerous, but it can also reveal things about people, and even whatever they're fixated on," Mr. Saltzman said. "It can make them vulnerable and then, sometimes, obsession can be used against them." He glanced around the room, and the students gazed back. "Okay, everyone, now that you've got a definition in mind, I want all of you to come up with three examples of obsession in history, and write a half page on each one of them. Hand it in Friday, all right?" He headed back to the front of the room, and as the bell rang, he nodded. "See you tomorrow."

"It's not like this is going to be hard," Elena said as she caught up to Bonnie in the hallway. "What are you going to do this on?"

"It's too bad that we can't just use the three vampires in our lives, that would make this really easy," Bonnie said, and then let it go. "I know, I've got to think about something else, but it's just that we know things are going to happen, and I know this firsthand because I've been on edge, and I can feel it."

"Did you have another vision?" Elena asked.

"Not yet, but it's like one's waiting around the corner for me, and I don't know when it's going to hit. Hopefully in time for us to be able to be ready."

"That would be nice."

"I'm not holding my breath," Bonnie said.

"What will you do about Damon?"

"He's stayed out of my way for the last few days."

"Is that what you want?" Elena asked.

"It should be."

"Yeah, but is it?"

"No. It's stupid, but I'd rather know what's going on, and if that means not everything is completely safe, then I can handle that."

Elena bit her lip and then grabbed Bonnie tightly. "You know what I think of Damon, but if you think you can make this work for you, then I want you to do it. But, if he bothers you, try floating him like those feathers. Float him out a window."

"That's nothing, I can set things on fire," Bonnie said, and Elena shrieked with laughter before she covered her mouth.

"I love it, and let me know if you're going to use that one on him."

"I promise," Bonnie said. "Now, come on, we'd better hit the library and get this assignment started."

Bonnie didn't have Damon's cell phone number, but she did know a way to get it. "Stefan, I'll be fine."

"I wanted to give you this awhile ago, but there wasn't a chance," Stefan said, and handed Bonnie a locket on a chain.

"Doesn't Elena have one of these?" Bonnie asked.

"She does."

"Why are you giving me one too?"

"Because it's not just a piece of jewelry."

"Then what is it?" Bonnie asked, getting tired of the double speak.

"It's a way of protecting you from Damon."

"I don't need help with that."

"Bonnie, trust me when I tell you, everybody needs to be protected from Damon."

"Maybe so, but I've got my own ways of doing that, and I don't need you to rescue me with a necklace. So unless you want to tell me what this really is, I'm going to leave it with you." She handed the chain back to Stefan. "Considering that you talked to my grandmother without letting me know, I think you owe me some explanation."

"All right." Stefan rolled the chain from one hand to the other. "The necklace I gave Elena has vervain in it, like this one, and it's a plant that helps you resist any compulsion that a vampire might try and put you under."

"You're handing these out to keep people safe?"

"Yes."

"Then why didn't you give one to Caroline?"

"I couldn't get close enough to her at first. I gave her some at the Founder's Party, and that helped a little bit."

"Not enough." Bonnie lifted her chin. "Thanks, Stefan, but if you'd wanted to give this to me, you should have just told me what it was." She held her hand out, and when he handed the necklace back, stuck it in her backpack. "Not everything has to be a secret, remember, we know what you two are."

"You think you know what Damon is, but you don't," Stefan said.

"I'm learning," Bonnie said. She adjusted her backpack and waved the piece of paper with Damon's number on it. "I know enough to be careful, so thanks."

"Hey," Bonnie said, standing in her bedroom, clutching her cell phone, and hoping that she didn't sound too nervous. "It's Bonnie."

"Hello," Damon said. "Who gave you my number?"

"Stefan."

"That doesn't seem like him, did you give him a hard time?"

"I may have." Bonnie glanced down at the carpet and curled her toes against it. "I've thought about it, you know, us working together."

"Have you now."

"Yeah."

"What did you decide?" Damon sounded bored, but Bonnie had never trusted that tone from him, and continued.

"If we're going to stay ahead of what's happening, then we need to work together. I won't help you free a bunch of vampires, but I can do other things."

"I'm sure you can, and I'd love to find out what they are," Damon said.

Bonnie groaned. "You're not winning me over."

"Do I need to?"

"It would be nice if you'd make the effort to be civilized once in awhile," Bonnie said.

"Why bother pretending?"

"No reason, I guess," Bonnie said. "Anyway, I wanted to tell you that I wouldn't mind if you came around again."

"Any particular time I should happen by?" Damon asked.

"I'm not doing anything right now."

"I see."

There was a pause, and Bonnie glanced out the window and smiled as she put her phone down on the dresser. "Were you waiting for me to call?"

"I have plenty of other things to do," Damon said.

"I'm sure you do," Bonnie said and came to the window, sitting on the windowsill and waiting for Damon to take a seat as well.

Damon lifted his head and sniffed the air. "I smell vervain, I guess Stefan gave you my number with a caveat."

"He gave me a necklace and told me that he wanted me to be safe."

"You're not wearing it," Damon said.

"No, I'm not," Bonnie said.

"Interesting." Damon swayed from one side to the other, and then was still again. "Does this mean you're not going to come out here with me?"

"It wouldn't be very smart, hanging out on the roof with a vampire," Bonnie said.

"Well, I don't see that you're going to invite me in anytime soon, so I thought we could compromise. This way you can go inside whenever you want, and I can't follow."

Bonnie thought it over, and then nodded. "I like that plan."

Damon stood up and stepped back from window. "Come on, then." He made one of the courtly bows that still surprised Bonnie, and extended his hand for her to take as she stepped out onto the roof.

"If my dad realizes we're out here, you're going to have some explaining to do," Bonnie said, and shivered. She was only wearing a t shirt and shorts, and it was cold outside.

"Then, we'd better keep it down," Damon said, and shrugged his jacket off and draped it around Bonnie's shoulders. "Go on, take a seat."

"What are we doing?"

"We," Damon said as he lowered himself to the roof beside her, "Are sitting here together and going to have a bit of civilized conversation. Let's see if it's what it's cracked up to be."

Bonnie narrowed her eyes at him as she slid her arms inside the jacket. "We are?"

"Yes."

"When was the last time you did this?"

"Oh, sometime in the last forty years, I'm sure."

"I don't believe you."

"Not everything about the 60s was drugs and rock and roll. There was a lot of hanging out."

Bonnie tried to picture Damon being content to lay around and do nothing. "I have a hard time imagining you having fun that way."

"I can be relaxed." Damon smirked. "Especially post coitally."

"Oh, that was just uncalled for," Bonnie said, and shoved him in the side.

"You needed a frame of reference."

"Not that one."

"What changed your mind?" Damon asked. "About all of this?"

"I can't change what I am, and it's stupid not to use it."

"That's very reasonable and mature."

"Thanks."

"It's also a load of crap." Damon turned so that he was looking at her, and Bonnie put her shoulders back.

"Don't get so defensive, I notice things, and you people don't make a habit of doing the smart thing."

"Don't judge me based on what other people do."

"I would never make that mistake, unpredictability keeps my life interesting," Damon said.

"I like to help," Bonnie said and sat with her legs crossed and wondered how this was freaky and yet she was still having a good time.

"Not always." Damon shifted sideways, out of hitting range. "I'm not bringing that up, forget I mentioned it."

"I won't, but I'll let it go," Bonnie said. "Okay, I'm new at all of this, how do we handle a force of, I don't know, invading vampires?"

"It would help if we could find them."

"No kidding."

Damon reached into his pocket. "Luckily I have something that can help with that problem." He held up an old pocket watch and waved it at Bonnie.

"Where did you get that?"

"From Logan Fell."

"Why is it so special?"

"It locates vampires." Damon placed the watch gently in Bonnie's hands.

"That's handy." Bonnie flipped open the cover and stared at the inner workings. "It's a compass."

"Yes."

"Who made it?" Bonnie asked.

"Does that matter? It works, that's what's important."

"You want to use this to find the other vampires?"

Damon nodded. "Right, and I can't use it, because I cancel out the signal."

"Good thing you've got a witch around."

"Isn't it, though?" Damon leaned closer and rested his shoulder very lightly against Bonnie's and watched her as she examined the watch.

"That can't be all you've come up with."

"Find the vampires, kill them, that usually works out well for me."

"But what if that doesn't work? You're not the strongest vampire out there, I mean, there have to be vampires that are older than you, and what happens if one of them comes to town?" Bonnie considered her own situation. "Or, other witches, if there are vampires and witches, then I bet it doesn't stop there, and this town seems to attract people like that."

"If there is a convention, we could have more of a problem," Damon said.

"I thought so. This is some learning curve I'm dealing with."

"No pressure." Damon smiled, and Bonnie hit him in the arm again.

"Okay, you want me to use this thing to find the vampires, then you'll run them out of town, or stake them, depending on your mood, and meanwhile, we still don't know what's living in the woods and attacking people whenever it wants."

"Nicely summarized."

"When do we get started?"

"As much as I like a stroll through the woods at night, I don't see you wanting to head out in your current outfit." Damon nodded to Bonnie's bare legs and feet. "Anyhow, it's best to do this during the daylight, when we have the advantage."

"I'm not skipping school for this, you know that, right?"

"I've got a few ideas about where the vampires might be hiding out, and I can take a look while you're furthering your educational development," Damon said. "Then we can meet up and do some tracking together."

"Let's not tell your brother about this," Bonnie said.

"Don't worry, I'm not in a hurry for him to try and interfere."

"He can handle himself, Elena said so."

"Stefan is too principled to take care pf himself properly, and he shouldn't be involved until we're sure what's happening."

"How come I'm better equipped than Stefan?" Bonnie asked.

"It's not that you're better, just that you've got to develop your talents, and there's nothing like some field experience to help with that."

"Is this how you solve all your problems?"

"It's worked so far."

"Uh huh." Bonnie got to her feet and stepped back to the window. "It looks like the sun's coming up, you'd better get going."

"Yeah, I've got places to go, people to bite."

"I thought you were cutting back on that."

"I am, it's just an expression."

"Is it ever just anything with you?" Bonnie slid his jacket off and handed it back to him. "Thanks, and what do you want me to do with the watch?"

"Hang onto it, see if it goes off, but don't let the Founders see it, and if does start acting weird, don't do anything without letting me know first. No point in inviting trouble."

"Haven't I already?" Bonnie stepped over the windowsill and picked up the necklace. "I think I'll put this on, nothing personal, I'm just taking precautions."

"No offense meant, none taken," Damon said, and gave her one of his wide smiles and then, as usual, disappeared.

Bonnie didn't even react, and that meant she was getting used to the way that he came and went. Somehow it was a kind of comfort that Damon would push the boundaries of any agreement, and it kept Bonnie from depending on a status quo, something she was beginning to think would help keep her alive.


	3. Chapter 3

Having a secret mission to defend the town against vampires didn't mean that Bonnie could forget about all of her other priorities. She still spent a lot evenings at Grams' house, and between her training, school, and cheer leading, she wasn't sure how she was going to work in a vendetta against encroaching vampires.

"I'm not going to get any sleep ever again, am I?" Bonnie said to herself as she packed her bag for school. She stacked her school books on top of each other and added the notebook she was using to scribble down notes about magic. The necklace Stefan had given her was hanging around her neck, and the pocket watch was dropped into the inner pocket of her coat, which she zipped shut.

"I have absolutely no spare time," Bonnie said to Damon when they met up that weekend.

"Is that a pressing issue?" Damon asked.

"I just thought I'd mention it." Bonnie stuffed her backpack in the trunk of Damon's car and pulled out the compass. "Is this one of those things where I just walk around looking like I'm lost until it works?"

"First I have to get some distance between myself and that thing," Damon said. "Just give me a call if you get anything."

"Don't worry, I won't go looking for vampires by myself," Bonnie said, and felt the disturbance of air as Damon left. She set off toward the shopping district, compass hidden in her pocket. There were a number of people window shopping, and they nodded or waved at Bonnie, and she tried to act natural, as if she didn't have a secret mission to complete.

She couldn't decide whether she felt more like a covert agent or some agent, or just completely ridiculous, because she hadn't gotten a thing out of the compass for seven blocks. There were vampires somewhere in Mystic Falls, and so she was dreading the moment when the compass worked, but knew it had to happen, otherwise there would a lot more people killed.

After an hour, Bonnie called Damon. "Nothing yet, I guess none of them are staying in town."

"At least a couple of them are, would you want to sleep in a cave if you had a choice about it?" Damon asked. "Try checking the hotels, and then we can head into the woods."

"What are you doing while I walk around with a compass?" Bonnie asked.

"I'm doing some checking of my own."

"From what, the inside of a bar?"

"No, I've been in every warehouse this town has, and I can say for sure that we have at least one vampire in town."

"What did you find?" Bonnie asked.

There was the sound of rustling, like Damon was moving the phone to his other ear, and then like a heavy object had been shifted. "Bodies, quite a few. What is it about getting rid of the evidence that's so difficult to understand?"

"Like you do?"

"All it takes is a match," Damon said, and he sounded incredulous. "I approve of laziness, but this is appalling."

"The loss of life doesn't bother you, but being careless does."

"Yeah."

Bonnie gagged. "When I think that you might be showing some sign of compassion, you prove otherwise."

"Glad I could help," Damon said.

Just then, the compass whirled around, and the arrow came to a halt pointing toward a small self storage facility. "Wait, I think this thing is working," Bonnie said, and hurried to the gate. The arrow remained pointed firmly toward the storage units, and she nodded. "I'm on the edge of town, by Gene's Self Storage, and the compass is pointing inside."

"Hang on a second," Damon said, and when Bonnie glanced to her left, Damon was beside her, and they both put their phones away. "Can I see that?" Damon held his hand out, and Bonnie gave him the compass.

"Well, here's where you hang back unless you want to add trespassing to your day."

"Is it safe?"

"Nobody likes to be woken up with a stake," Damon said.

"I'll stay here," Bonnie said, and Damon's mouth lifted on one side as he handed the compass back to her.

"This shouldn't take long." Damon's knees bent slightly and then he was up and over the fence and standing on the other side. He went to the first storage unit, and wrenched the door upwards with a screech of metal.

Bonnie flinched and glanced around. Luckily this place wasn't exactly close to anything else, and there weren't guards on the weekend, but she still was watching the road to make sure nobody say them hanging around.

There wasn't anything of interest in the first unit, and Damon brought the door down again, and moved on. That went on for the next two, and then on the third, he let out a noise, and disappeared inside.

She was too far away to see what was going on inside, but Bonnie could hear the sounds of a fight, and stayed ready, in case it spilled outside. When it went quiet, she leaned on the fence, hanging onto the metal links and straining to see where Damon was.

"Damon?"

When he stepped back outside, his jacket was slightly askew, and his hair was ruffled, but he was holding something in his right hand and there was blood on it. Holding it up, he grinned. "Furniture works just as well as wooden bullets."

"That's good to know, what are you going to do about the body?" Bonnie asked.

"I'll get rid of it," Damon said. "You don't have to stick around for this part if you don't want to, I'll just be hauling it out to the woods and burying it."

"What if it gets found?"

"Vampires don't last long after they've been staked, not when you've got a little bit of a bonfire going," Damon said.

"Nice. So, same time tomorrow?" Bonnie asked.

"If you can find the time," Damon said.

"How long do you think this is going to take?"

"It depends on how many vampires there are."

"But if one of them starts making more vampires, then this could go on forever," Bonnie said, the thought of it unsettling, to say the least.

"They won't make any more than they need to," Damon said, and went back into the storage unit and dragged out a body.

She hadn't seen anybody dead from violence, not up close, and Bonnie had to force herself to watch as Damon handled the body with ease and less difficulty than she could imagine ever having, but Bonnie didn't look away.

"You can come along if you want to," Damon said, noticing her staring, and Bonnie forcibly shook her head.

"No, I've got a project for school, and I'm making dinner at Grams' house tonight."

"Well, run along."

"Yeah." Bonnie tucked the compass into her pocket again and headed off toward home.

Bonnie hurried around the corner of the Grill and met Elena at their usual table with her hands raised. "Don't get upset," Bonnie said to Elena.

"Well, that doesn't sound good."

"I just saw something."

"Spit it out," Elena said.

"I saw Caroline and Matt this morning."

"So did I."

"I don't think you saw them the same way I did. They were kissing."

Elena blinked. "Really?"

Bonnie nodded. "Oh, very much so."

"Huh." Elena didn't look upset, but then again she didn't look as if she was thinking much of anything at all.

"Elena, are you okay?"

"Yes, I'm fine." Elena smiled. "I can't believe it, but I'm glad they're doing whatever it is they're doing. I just hope Matt treats Caroline well."

"And vice versa," Bonnie said, but only teasingly. She had been around Matt and Caroline the last several weeks, and they had seemed to be getting along well, and as of this morning, even better than she had expected.

"I guess Damon is leaving her alone," Elena said.

"He has other things to do," Bonnie said.

"I'm sure I don't want to know what that means, unless you're helping him."

"I am, a bit."

Elena sat back as Mina, the waitress who'd replaced Vicki brought their food over. "Thanks." When Mina had gone to another table, Elena picked up her fork and eyed Bonnie. "Is this one of those things that I don't need to hear about?"

"Not unless you want to know how many vampires might be in Mystic Falls." Bonnie took a bite of her sandwich.

"There are a lot of things that I'd rather not hear about, but we should keep on telling each other stuff, even if it's not pretty. So, go on, tell me what you're doing."

Bonnie shared the details of her day, and then frowned. "Why are we always talking about vampires?"

"Probably because we date or hang out with them a lot," Elena said, and nodded. "But you're right, this is not normal conversation."

"What do you think about the current political situation?" Bonnie asked.

Elena blinked. "Which one?"

Bonnie shrugged. "I don't know, pick one."

"Is this really your second choice of conversation?"

"I spent the day wandering around town with a magical compass, give me a break."

"Tell me what Grams is having you do with your powers. Has she hinted at any more dangerous things you shouldn't try doing yet?"

"As a matter of fact," Bonnie said, and looked around. "I've got to show you this thing later, I've been working on floating things besides feathers."

Elena grinned. "Awesome."

Two hours later, Bonnie had demonstrated just how far she'd come, and after they swept up the broken plate, admitted that she was still practicing.

"Just think of what you can do with this," Elena said. "You could throw things at people."

"Why do you automatically go with the violent option?" Bonnie asked.

"It might come in handy."

"I'd like to imagine we at least have a chance for boring and normal someday."

"With our lives?"

"Stop it, I can dream," Elena said.

"Since we're not talking about the reasons we might not be able to do that, do you have anything else you want broken?" Bonnie asked.

Elena tapped the counter thoughtfully. "There is this truly hideous vase upstairs that my mom hated. She listened intently and then hopped up. "Aunt Jenna and Jeremy aren't here, let's see how far you can float it."

Bonnie followed her. "And if I accidentally lose control, you won't mind that it gets broken."

"Not at all," Elena said, and grinned at Bonnie over her shoulder.

The next couple of hunts would have waited for the next weekend, but there were two more attacks, and Sheriff Forbes was looking increasingly frantic when she held a press conference in front of City Hall. Mayor Lockwood was there too, trying to reassure people, but the same old excuses weren't working as well anymore, and Bonnie knew that things were going to get bad and probably very fast.

"I saw the news today," Bonnie said, sitting on a bench by the football field.

Damon hopped up onto the table, and nodded. "I did too."

"I thought it might stop, the killing, after we got that vampire."

"There isn't just one, there never is," Damon said.

"Is that some rule? That's why you follow Stefan everywhere he goes?"

"I'm his brother, I look after him."

"You've got to say, you've got a pretty weird way of doing it."

"I have my own style," Damon said.

"Yeah."

"So this means we've got to find the rest of them."

Damon bounced up and off the table. "And they won't be as easy to kill, not if they actually have a plan instead of just killing a bunch of people."

"It couldn't be that simple," Bonnie said.

"Not if they're working together," Damon said.

"You think they are, and that it's been Katherine from the beginning."

"Yeah, I do."

"You're hoping she got free," Bonnie said. She knew that Damon and Stefan had loved Katherine, and whatever else they'd been, close was a poor description, but that of the two of them, Stefan hated Katherine more than he loved her. Damon still cared about this woman, even after everything that happened because of him being involved with her, and that he would want to do what he could to be with her again. "If we do find her, what's going to happen to me?"

"Hmm?" Damon asked, one hand resting on the table, and standing very close to Bonnie.

"What will you do if we, I don't know, open a door and there's Katherine and all her friends, and she says that she's so happy to see you, and wait, who's that girl?"

"It won't come up?"

"Because we won't find her, or because I'll be dead before she ever gets to ask the question?" Bonnie asked.

"Neither. If Katherine wants me to find her, she'll let me."

"That still leaves me in a bad place. I don't want to be vampire bait, and I won't help you kill everyone here, you know that. If that's what it will take to protect me from her, then we need to rework this deal."

"I made a promise to keep you safe."

"Not me personally, and you bit me, remember?"

"I messed up, but Emily started it," Damon said, and Bonnie groaned.

"You sound like the two of you pinky swore to be friends on the playground."

"It was a bit more of a high noon thing."

"You aren't in a Sergio Leone movie," Bonnie said.

"Sometimes that works as well as anything else."

"This is Virginia, remember?"

"I've traveled a lot, I can get mixed up." Damon stepped back when Bonnie deliberately leaned back, telling him that he was just way too close to her again.

"Or maybe it's your advanced age," Bonnie said.

"Mouthy," Damon said. "I like it. If you still want to do this, we should head out, Sheriff Forbes is organizing a search party with her deputies."

"Shouldn't you be a part of it?"

"I told her I had my own ideas about where the vampires could be and that I'd check them out before I wasted anybody's time."

"Are we going to tell them when we find more vampires?"

"Sure. I let her know about the last one."

"What if she finds out I'm helping you?" Bonnie asked.

"Then we're together, and I'm courting you."

Bonnie snorted. "Nobody is going to believe that, not from you."

"I can pull it off," Damon said.

"Sure you can," Bonnie said.

Damon rolled his eyes and picked up Bonnie's bag and put it over his shoulder. "Well, are you going to sit there, or shall we get going?"

"Are you going to carry that?" Bonnie reached for her bag, and Damon pulled it out of reach, and kept it away from her as she got up and made another grab for it.

"We've got to make it look real." Damon kept a hold of her bag, and Bonnie grumbled as she pulled the compass out of her pocket.

"Fine, but this is as far as it goes, all right?"

"It's lovely in the woods this time of day," Damon said.

"Let's hope the other vampires are thinking the same thing," Bonnie said, and waited for the compass to settle in her palm, and then set out. She glanced sideways at Damon. "How close do you have to be to make this thing get confused?"

"I can't use it, and I shouldn't be touching it," Damon said. "Other than that, we can test it out and see what happens."

"We'd better be sure before we head into the woods," Bonnie said, and kept a careful eye on the compass as they walked to be sure that it wasn't reacting to Damon. When she was satisfied that Damon didn't set it off just by being near her, she nodded at him. "It looks like we're good." She'd worn boots to school, which had gotten her a couple questioning looks, but nobody asked why she'd suddenly decided to take up hiking.

"Did you do this when you were a kid?" Bonnie asked. "Play in the woods?"

"Sometimes," Damon said, and glanced around. "Mostly our father preferred we stay on the estate, he liked to know where we were."

"I bet you didn't like that."

"You're right."

"Meaning you've spent a lot of time out here."

"These days, you people go for a drive, then we went hunting, but it's mostly the same thing. It clears your head and you don't have to deal with anyone else."

They kept moving, and the needle of the compass didn't move. After a half hour they were at the ruins of Fell's Church, and the needle spun around as though something had hit it. That wasn't completely unexpected, and the fact that it stopped to point at the place where Emily had sealed a bunch of vampires up for eternity wasn't a surprise either.

"Well, they should be here, and they are."

Damon looked over her shoulder at the compass. "It seems that they aren't causing trouble after all."

Bonnie walked over to where the ground had given way beneath her a couple of days ago and stared down into the hole that she knew led to the crypt. "Do you want to check and be sure?"

As he peered into the darkness, Damon let out a small noise. "No need, they're all still here." He stepped back, set Bonnie's bag on the ground and then slid down to sit next to it.

"Are you okay?" Bonnie asked.

"Yeah, I'm good," Damon said. His smile was convincing, but Bonnie was learning not to believe what she saw, and waited for him to be serious. It was hard to be sympathetic when they were talking about a vampire who wanted to kill everyone in Mystic Falls, but Damon still loved her, and she had to at least try to acknowledge that.

"I know you wanted her to be out, but it's better that she's not."

"She wouldn't stay anywhere she didn't want to be, not if she had a choice," Damon said.

"But Emily sealed the crypt, that was what you wanted her to do, right? Nobody could get in or out, so who is doing all of these awful things?"

"We only found one vampire, there have to be others," Damon said.

"From who?"

"Around. Word gets out eventually, and with the comet and everything, the Salvatores aren't the only ones to visit this idyllic little town."

"You sound like a tourist brochure," Bonnie said, but said it without real anger.

"I could write them, but I don't think anybody wants to read about the real history of this place."

"Probably not," Bonnie said and stared at the tomb for a minute longer. Then, her phone vibrated, and she handed the compass to Damon. "Hang on, I've got to answer this."

"Why, do you have someone waiting on you?"

"Grams knows I've been working on something having to do with my magic, and Elena and I try not to keep things from each other."

"Honesty is so important," Damon said.

"From you, that isn't as profound as you think," Bonnie said.

"But it's still true."

"Are you going to ever practice this wisdom?"

"I'm surprisingly forthright," Damon said. "The trouble is that people don't believe it."

"Yeah, I can see how that might be an issue when you're going around killing people all the time."

"But I don't lie about it."

"Except about Katherine."

"No." Damon stood up. "I have never held anything back about what I want, and that's what scares you, that I can be telling the truth and do horrible things at the same time." He waved a hand at Bonnie. "You people, bad people are supposed to be the ones to conceal what they're doing, and good people shouldn't, but that's not what's happening here. Why do you think you've never heard Stefan talk about his past? He's done a lot of things that he's not proud of, so he talks around them instead."

"But you want Katherine, so we're looking for vampires who might be doing the same thing." Bonnie frowned. "Why does that sound stupid?"

"Because you're over thinking it again." Damon had turned away and was staring into the hole.

"Can you hear them too?" Bonnie asked. "I was down there, and it was horrible."

Damon didn't look up. "They've been trapped in that crypt for a century and a half."

"Being in there for years must have been awful," Bonnie said.

"That is a very delicate way of putting it, and I wouldn't recommend it as a way to pass the time."

"What would happen if you couldn't drink blood for that long?" Bonnie asked.

"You can't move or talk, and eventually you turn into a mummy."

"Then you die?"

Damon stepped closer to Bonnie as he spoke, lowering his voice. "No, that's not going to happen unless somebody actually takes a stake to you or sets you on fire."

"But you can't get out, and there's nothing to do, so you would go crazy," Bonnie said. She'd thought about it, but saying it made it worse because she could picture it.

"It's very likely," Damon said.

"There are vampires down there, who are crazy, and you think that letting them out is a good thing."

"I don't care about them," Damon said. "Katherine is the only one that matters."

Standing so close to where the vampires were trapped put Bonnie's stomach in knots, and she backed away from the hole. "I know that you love her, but I can't help you, remember what we agreed."

"I know." Damon was still staring at the hole, and Bonnie didn't want to touch him, not when he was so still and focused. She could tell he wasn't human right then, he wasn't even breathing, and she had to steel herself before she spoke.

"Great, we've figured out that there definitely are still vampires in the crypt, and that means somebody else wants to get them out. Should we stick around all night and wait for them?"

"They won't show up here, not until they find Emily's grimoire," Damon said, and refocused himself.

"We have to find it first."

"If they're at all smart, and I'm not discounting that, then they might want us to just lead them to it," Damon said.

"That's what you'd do, right? Let somebody else do the work?" Bonnie asked.

"It saves time."

"But you don't trust anybody anyway, why would you let them get involved in your business?" Bonnie asked. "Especially when it comes to Katherine, who's pretty important to you."

"Anybody who wants to get into the tomb has a reason, and they'll be careful too."

"That doesn't make them a friend," Bonnie said. "Of me," she added, "I know you like to avoid having any of those."

"Your understanding is admirable," Damon said.

"Shut up." Bonnie checked her text messages and sighed. "Looks like this adventure is over for today. Elena says she's making dinner for all of us."

"Well, I'll be going," Damon said, and Bonnie reached out and grabbed his arm. He glanced down curiously, and Bonnie let go.

"You too."

"Sitting around watching my brother glare at me for two hours when I'm supposed to behave is not a fun evening out." Damon paused. "In fact, it's like a flashback to unhappier times, so I think I've got other things that need doing."

"They're still going to be here tomorrow," Bonnie said.

"Yes, but I'm trying to find a way to change that, and Elena gets upset when I talk business at the table."

"Vampires aren't good at small talk?" Bonnie asked and glanced upwards. "Oh, great, it's going to rain."

"Witches don't actually melt when they get wet," Damon said.

Bonnie glared. "No, but they do get annoyed when their clothes get soaked and they have to walk all the way home to change."

"Here." Damon held out an arm and Bonnie looked askance at him.

"What?"

"Come here."

"Why?"

"Just get over here, little witch," Damon said, and slid an arm around her waist.

"If this is some trick, I will test out that fire spell on you," Bonnie said, and Damon laughed, and this close to each other his breath ruffled Bonnie's hair.

"I have a solution to your water phobia, and if you close your eyes, I'll have you home in second."

"First off, we have to be at Elena's right now," Bonnie said. "And secondly, I am not closing my eyes, because then I can't see what you're doing."

"Your choice, but it's going to be a rough trip," Damon said and then they were moving faster than Bonnie thought was possible. He was right, it was disorienting and the world was color and muted noise all at once in a way that made Bonnie shut her eyes after all so she didn't throw up.

"We're here," Damon said, and Bonnie opened her eyes and staggered at the same time.

"Whoa."

"I told you."

"No, you just said you could get me to Elena's really fast," Bonnie said, and hung onto Damon's arm for a second before her legs were steady and then she stepped away from him.

"I thought you might figure it out," Damon said and watched her smooth her shirt down, and then motioned o the house. "Did you want to go in?"

"Yes, we'd better," Bonnie said, and noticed that Damon had her bag over his shoulder. "I can take that now if you want."

"Don't worry about it," Damon said and followed her up the steps and waited while she rang the doorbell.

Elena served up salad and something out of a package, as usual, and over the biscuits, asked how the vampire hunting was going.

Stefan coughed. "Do you really think that's dinner conversation, Elena?"

"Is there some sort of rule I don't know about, that you can only talk about vampires when you're in the right mood?" Elena asked.

"No."

"Then what's the problem?"

"There's no problem," Damon said and tore a biscuit in half and deliberately took a bite. "It's going fine."

"Does that mean you've found them all?"

"We know where most of the vampires are in Mystic Falls, it's the ones we can't find that are the problem," Damon said.

"Meaning that you haven't found them yet," Stefan said and offered Bonnie the bowl of salad.

"No, but we've still got a lot of places to look." Bonnie felt like she was on a date, with Stefan and Elena checking up on her, which was sweet, but odd.

"Have you found what you were looking for yet?" Stefan asked Damon.

"Not in any of the journals," Damon said, continuing a conversation that Bonnie and Elena hadn't been around to hear the beginning of.

"What journals?" Elena asked.

"He wanted to look at our father's journal from the time when Katherine came to Mystic Falls," Stefan said.

"You still have all of those things from back then?" Bonnie asked.

"Have you seen the boardinghouse?" Damon said. "It's full of old stuff."

"Is there anything about Emily in those journals?"

"A few things here and there," Damon said and took a sip of water.

"Would it be all right if I looked at them sometime?"

"I don't think we should lend them out," Stefan said. "If the Founders Council got wind of us having something like that, there might be some questions about why we didn't hand them over to help their cause."

"It's family history," Damon said, and met Bonnie's eyes. "You can come and take a look at the journals if you want."

Bonnie was still processing that when she realized that Damon had invited her over, which shouldn't have been a big deal, and Elena was thinking the same thing. They made a series of faces at each other over the table, and ignored the way that Damon and Stefan were staring.

"I want to see them too," Elena said. "Maybe there's something in there about the Pierce family, about my ancestors."

"Great, we'll have a study group," Damon said, and Stefan snorted.

"It'll be a new experience for you."

"It's so nice to see you being helpful," Damon said, and his tone was sharp enough to raise eyebrows, which it did.

"I'm just trying to get you what you want," Stefan said.

"To what end?" Damon asked.

Elena nudged the salt shaker toward Bonnie, and mouthed a question at her. Bonnie had no idea what was going on, other than the issues that the two of them had been dealing with for decades.

"If you find what you want, then you'll have no reason to stay," Stefan said.

"Always wanting to get rid of me, that's family for you," Damon said and wadded up his napkin. "I think I'm done." He picked up his plate and headed into the kitchen and Elena turned to Stefan and frowned at him.

"Antagonizing him doesn't help, you know."

"I wasn't."

"Almost chasing him out of town? As if that will help."

"He won't leave if he thinks he can have Katherine."

"I know that, but if you open the tomb, then all the other vampires are going to get free too," Elena said.

"I told him that's not going to happen, but Katherine is an exception."

"For him, or for you?" Elena asked, and picked up her own dishes and went in the same direction as Damon.

Left at the table together, Bonnie and Stefan eyed each other. "Do you really think he'll just leave if he has Katherine back?" Bonnie asked.

"I don't know," Stefan said.

"I bet Katherine isn't going to want to forgive and forget."

"I hope she will." Stefan rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Somehow or other, that tomb will be opened, it's just a matter of when. If we're the ones to do it, maybe we can control what happens. If we don't, then all those vampires are just going to run wild and kill a lot of people."

"You won't be able to stop that many vampires," Bonnie said.

"Not even if Damon and I are actually working together," Stefan said.

"I can help, I have been."

"It's going to be dangerous."

"Stefan, don't start. The only reason I don't have a scar from where your brother bit me is that I had some of your blood and it healed. But I haven't forgotten what it felt like, and I've seen the newspapers. This whole town is in danger, and at least Damon is willing to admit that I can do something." She began stacking plates, and when she had a good sized pile, went to see if Damon and Elena were finished with their own washing up.

"He's not happy," Bonnie said when she and Damon were outside on the lawn.

"Stefan excels at unhappiness," Damon said. "If it was offered for credit, he'd fail just so he could take it again. Better yet, he'd teach it to anybody who wanted to make themselves miserable."

"He just doesn't want you hurting people, that doesn't seem too unreasonable."

"When you factor in his hypocrisy, it kind of does."

Without seeing what Stefan had done firsthand, Bonnie couldn't judge him the same way she did Damon, but she had gotten a flash of it off Stefan the time she gave him Elena's phone number. There were reasons why Stefan was so controlled, but he wasn't going to share, and Damon seemed to prefer hints to facts, like it was more fun to watch people poke at things until they found the truth. Bonnie was too tired to play along. "Either share or give it a rest, will you?"

"Fine." Damon stuck his hands in his pockets. "I'll walk you home."

"You don't need to."

"With strange vampires around it would be stupid not to be careful."

"Yeah, I know," Bonnie said, and shook her head as Damon adjusted his hold on her backpack. It was the sort of low key courtesy that Bonnie wouldn't have thought Damon would indulge in, but she was enjoying it a little bit. "Okay, let's go."

Sometimes it seemed like her entire life had been caught up in the supernatural. There were strange vampires to worry about, spells to be learned, and an overall sense that at any moment, the town would be overrun by hungry vampires who hadn't had a meal since the Civil War. It was no wonder she had trouble concentrating on her classes, and she wasn't alone in that.

Strange as it seemed, going out and looking for vampires every so often was a good way for her to get rid of some of her tension, and she was getting more confident in her abilities. These days she could tell if it was going to rain when she rolled out of bed, and there were other signs that she was getting attuned to the elements. Even though there were definitely reasons to avoid being out after dark alone, Bonnie wasn't as worried about how she was going to handle herself.

"You're not Wonder Woman," Damon said when Bonnie had said as much to him.

"I know, I don't have a lasso, but I'm not completely helpless."

"Just don't forget that you have people who would miss you if something bad happened," Damon said.

"You don't have that problem?" Bonnie said, and Damon smiled.

"No, I don't, which is why we need to get out of here." He'd been examining a patch of disturbed earth, and now he straightened up and took her arm.

"Why?"

"We're being watched," Damon said, and began leading her back the way they'd come.

"By what?"

"A werewolf."

"There are werewolves in Mystic Falls?"

"Evidently not all of them were killed," Damon said, and there was a definite tension in his voice. "When it attacks, you need to run, but not until then, understand?"

"Leaving you to do what?" Bonnie asked. They were hurrying toward the edge of the woods, but now Bonnie was hearing sounds in the undergrowth and knew they wouldn't make it out in time. "Chivalry won't look good on you if you're dead."

Damon was about to say something, and then there was a growl, like nothing Bonnie had ever heard before, and she let out a gasp. "Where is it?"

"Close," Damon said, and gave her a nudge. "Move faster, but don't run, you don't want to look like prey."

"Okay. Are you going to fight it?"

"I'd rather not, but it doesn't look like there's another option," Damon said and shook his head. "Now you can run." He shoved her to the side just as something huge crashed through the bushes and landed right where Bonnie had been standing.

Bonnie rolled down the slope of a small hill, and then stopped for a second. When she was sure that nothing had come after her, she groaned as she got to her feet and glanced around. She could hear noises from somewhere close by, but the woods were too thick and it was too dark to tell where the sounds were coming from. She didn't want to call out to Damon and distract him or let the creature know where she was. Instead, she stayed alert, listening for footsteps or or wind where it shouldn't be, and while she was waiting for her sense of direction to settle, she let her awareness of the woods reach out and find her tools to use, and as she pushed her fear to the side, she could tell where there were tree roots, right under the leaves, and when she rested her hand on one, the energy hummed. Tapping into that wasn't easy or automatic, but Bonnie managed, and when she stood up and walked slowly toward where the noises were coming from, she was shaking but not just with fear.

She'd seen a few horror movies, and gone to the zoo, and so somehow she had imagined a werewolf would look like a combination of a bear and a wolf, something huge but sleek. It wasn't, and the thing that was swatting at Damon with its huge paws didn't look like it had any plans beyond ripping him apart. Damon was dodging the blows, but he hadn't dodged them all, and from the way he was favoring his left side, Bonnie thought it might be bad.

"If you're going to show off, now would be the time," Damon said, and Bonnie jumped.

"Okay." The magic was like a static charge all over her body, and as the werewolf glanced her way, assessing her, and then growling as it decided she might be easier to handle, all of that power suddenly gathered in her hands, and Bonnie threw it at the werewolf.

Her will hit the werewolf like a blow, and it was thrown into a tree and whimpered as it shook off the impact.

"Try it again," Damon said, moving a little closer to her, but still keeping out of the way.

"I don't know that I can do that again, not so soon," Bonnie said.

"Well, try something else, then," Damon said.

"Fine." Bonnie stared at the werewolf, at the leaves in its fur, and thought of candles, heat, and sparks. The leaves ignited, and the werewolf howled, and ran off threw the woods.

"That worked pretty well," Bonnie said, and grinned, then stumbled. "Whoa, but I think that's just about it for me tonight."

"That makes two of us," Damon said, staggering into a tree, and Bonnie was close enough to see that there was blood on his face.

"Are you all right?"

"Not for much longer."

"Come on, it's only a little ways to the car," Bonnie said, and Damon tilted his head back to rest against the trunk of the tree.

"I know."

"Well, then move," Bonnie said, and tried to decide where best to grab Damon if he fell down. "I can't levitate you that well yet, and that means you need to get going before you pass out."

Bonnie drove them to the boarding house, and when the got there, jumped out of the car, and ran to the door, yelling for Stefan, who answered the door.

"What happened?" he asked, following her outside and staring at Damon for a second before he got the passenger door open and began helping his brother out of the car.

"We have a werewolf in Mystic Falls," Damon said cheerfully, one hand pressed to his stomach, and Stefan swore in Italian. "Remind you of the old days, Stefan?"

Stefan continued to curse, and Damon raised his eyebrows.

"I haven't heard that one since Dad died," Damon said, and his brother shook his head.

"You should have called me when you found the signs."

"We didn't have a chance," Bonnie said, grabbing another towel and handing it to Stefan, who pressed it into Damon's stomach. "It was on top of us almost as soon as Damon heard it coming."

"Why would it attack you?" Elena asked.

"Werewolves are territorial," Stefan said and pulled the towel back, frowning at the wound. "It probably thought that you two were trespassing."

"It smelled like Benjamin Lockwood," Damon said, and Stefan grimaced.

"Of course."

"Why isn't he just healing?" Bonnie asked as more blood welled up onto the towel, and Damon's head arched back and he bit his lip.

"It's the poison," Stefan said. "A werewolf bite is toxic because it passes on the curse, and so if you get bitten or mauled by one, you get it too."

"Vampires can't turn into werewolves."

"No, we just get sick," Damon said faintly, and Bonnie sat down on the bed next to him.

"What's the cure?"

"Blood," Damon said, and then groaned.

"Get a bowl or something," Stefan said, and Bonnie jumped up. She handed it to Stefan just in time for Damon to roll onto his side and vomit.

"Something else I didn't know you could do," Bonnie said, and Damon kept dry heaving while Stefan held the towel down into the wound. When Damon fell back onto the bed, exhausted and breathing hard, Bonnie glanced at Stefan.

"Seriously, do you need help?"

"I'm going to have to get him blood, and a lot of it, and until this passes out of his system it's going to be messy."

"How's that?" Elena asked.

"What he means is that I'm going to be incredibly unbearable for a few days," Damon said.

"More than usual," Stefan said, and Damon started to laugh and then flinched, and his hands went to his stomach. "Stop being funny, Stefan, it's not like you."

"I'll try to restrain myself," Stefan said and frowned. "Did it take this long to heal that the last time?"

"I don't think so, but we were eating better back then."

Bonnie stared at Damon's hands, bloody up to the wrists resting by Stefan's, their matching rings, and then at the way Stefan was staring hard at his brother. Stefan was worried, and trying not to show it. "Stefan, can we help, or do you want us to go home?"

"Thanks, Bonnie, but I can handle this." He looked past he to Elena. "I'll call you later, Elena."

Elena stepped forward and put a hand on his arm. "Let me know if we can help, okay?"

Stefan nodded and covered her hand with the one not holding the towel. "I will."

"Let's go, Bonnie," Elena said, and took Bonnie's hand.

"I'll be by tomorrow," Bonnie said, and Stefan looked surprised. He was about to say something, when Damon spoke up.

"It'll be the highlight of my day, I'm sure."

"You should be so lucky," Bonnie said, and went along with Elena, who took her home, insisted she take a shower, and then got the entire story out of her over coffee and the pound cake Jenna had made that morning.

"Now there are werewolves," Elena said.

"Yeah," Bonnie said. "This town really should advertise."

"Or something."

"Let's go to college out of state," Elena said.

"Someplace sunny," Bonnie said. She stared at her half eaten piece of cake. "Damon will be fine. Stefan said he would, don't worry."

"I'm not," Bonnie said.

"So you're not going to head over there with me tomorrow?"

"Shut up," Bonnie said and crumpled up her napkin tossed it at Elena. "Do you really think there's going to be something about Katherine in the journals."

"How else would Sheriff Forbes and all the others know about the vampires?"

"They had all the stories, but I don't think they named any names, otherwise wouldn't Damon and Stefan be in trouble too?"

"I don't know if Damon was telling the truth, but at the Founder's Party, he said that the Salvatore brothers were shot and killed when they went to the church to rescue a woman. Apparently she was trapped there with Union sympathizers."

"Katherine and the other vampires were in the church." Elena blinked. "Damon sometime tells the truth, I don't know what to do with that."

"Don't think too hard about it, you'll get a headache," Bonnie said.

"I'm sure he does it just to freak you out, he's a psychotic vampire who tells the truth."

"Yeah, I'm not going there," Elena said and took another bite.

Stefan answered the door almost before the doorbell chime had faded, and he looked tired. "Hello, Elena, Bonnie."

"How's your patient?" Elena asked.

"Annoying," Stefan said. "If you want to see him, Damon's in the library."

"Shouldn't he be in bed?" Bonnie asked.

"He'd only agree if he had company," Stefan said, and Elena rolled her eyes. "Sorry, he's been a pain this morning, and hates laying around in bed."

"Unless he's got someone with him, we get it," Bonnie said, and sighed. "Is he okay?"

"Mostly, it's like having the flu. He's tired and sore, and he doesn't appreciate my dinner palate."

"But he's in the library?" Elena asked.

"Damon reads sometimes," Stefan said. At that, Elena gave him an incredulous look, and Stefan smiled. "He does have a reason and he's sure of what he needs to free Katherine."

"I bet he is," Bonnie said and nodded at Stefan. "I'm going to go and see if Emily is mentioned in any of those books you two talked about." Elena gave Bonnie a layered look, and Bonnie smiled back. "Where is the library?"

Stefan pointed the way and Bonnie pushed open the door to a large room that was decorated like the rest of the house with heavy furniture, huge rugs on the floor, and large fireplace where a fire was burning. All along the walls were bookshelves, going up to the ceiling.

Bonnie moved slowly into the room, and saw a stack of books spread out on a table next to a notepad which was covered in angular handwriting. Damn was on the couch, one arm tucked under his head, and the other resting on his stomach.

"The journals are on the table," Damon said, and Bonnie nodded as she pulled up a chair and turned it to face him.

"I saw that, but should you be out of bed?"

"Stefan asked me the same thing a half hour ago, and I'm still here."

"You either feel better, or you're too stubborn to admit that you're still sick."

"Take your pick," Damon said and opened his eyes. "Didn't you want to find out about Emily?"

"Yeah, which one is she in?"

Damon braced his arms and gingerly pulled himself upright. "The Minter journals are on the left, and a couple of the others might talk about her, but I haven't gone through all of them yet."

Bonnie picked up one of the books and carefully turned the brittle yellowed pages. She knew the dates of some things that had happened in Mystic Falls and also when Emily had come to town, and turned to those entries. "There's not much in here."

"Try a couple months later," Damon said. "That's when it becomes a real page turner."

As she read, Bonnie noticed that the writer had begun to be afraid of strangers and the darkness. There were notes about animals attacking people, and there there were no more entries. The journal stopped right after Minter said that something had to be done. "What happened to him?" Bonnie asked.

"He died."

"How?"

Damon leaned back into the arm of the couch. "He tried to kill a vampire. It didn't work out for him."

"Where did you get a hold of this?" Bonnie asked, holding up the journal.

"Minter was friends with my father, and he left it to him."

"The rest of the settlers' journals are kept in the library and at the Town Hall," Bonnie said.

"The ones the Founders think are safe for normal people to read. They don't want the secret to get out, if you don't believe in any of it, the fine families of this town come off like raving lunatics."

"Why haven't you, I don't know, gotten rid of them?"

"It's not as though they're all in the same place or on a list somewhere," Damon said. "They didn't have diary clubs back then where people wrote things down together for posterity."

"But that means there are people who know who you are."

"Not on the Council, we weren't vampires back then, not when the killing started."

"But you knew about Katherine, you tried to save her."

"She thought she could take care of herself," Damon said.

"You still tried."

"Yeah, for all the good it did her."

"If she didn't listen, then it's not your fault that she got trapped in the church," Bonnie said.

"I wasn't the only one who knew about her."

"Stefan did too, right?"

"And our father."

"He did?"

"Oh yeah. He was very invested in who we socialized with, and he really didn't approve of Katherine, even before he found out that she was a vampire."

"So what did he do?"

"Everything he could think of to get us to leave her."

"But you two didn't want to."

"I didn't, Stefan had other ideas." Damon's mouth twisted, and Bonnie couldn't tell if it was from pain or the memory of what had happened.

"What do you mean?"

"He was so surprised that Katherine wasn't as sweet and innocent as she pretended to be that he went along with some of our father's more outrageous ideas."

"Is that why you're so angry with him?"

"When Stefan realized what Katherine had been doing to us, with us, he couldn't get over it."

"She was controlling your minds? Making you think that she was something else?"

"With Stefan she had to, otherwise he would have told somebody what she was."

"But not with you?"

"I knew that she wasn't like me, and I didn't care."

"How did you find out?"

Damon smiled. "The usual way."

"You saw her kill somebody?" Bonnie couldn't imagine seeing that and thinking the same way about somebody, not even if there was a good reason for what they had done.

"No, we were in bed together, and she showed me."

"Just like that?"

"Ive always been more open minded than Stefan, and Katherine knew that about me."

"She just bared her teeth at you and asked if you minded if she drank your blood?" Bonnie's head was hurting.

"More or less."

"And when you didn't run screaming from the room, she decided that you had a real connection?"

Damon nodded, and Bonnie felt that gap between them again.

"Yet another example of how you and I are different, because if you ever did that, not that I'm inviting you to try, I'd throw you across the room and light you on fire first."

"It's not that bad," Damon said.

"Blood?" Bonnie grimaced. "I don't want to drink your blood."

"I didn't offer," Damon said. "I got that you have issues with it."

"Yeah, how strange, because it's part of that whole vampire thing, and I don't want to even start down that road."

Damon waited to see if she was going to go on, and when she didn't, leaned on one elbow and ran a finger over the air just above her face. "You don't have to be changed if you don't want to be, just take care about how much blood you exchange with vampires."

"I'll stick with none, thanks."

"That's up to you," Damon said.

"I know it is, and I just want you to know that because you don't always listen to people."

"I do too," Damon said. "I just don't do what they want me to."

Bonnie picked up another diary and hefted it as if she was going to throw it at Damon. "Is that right?"

"Do you have to bite people? I mean, when you're in bed with them?" Bonnie asked.

"Some people like that," Damon said. "And, with a vampire, it doesn't hurt the same way."

Bonnie let out a doubtful noise. "I've heard that from guys before."

"Yeah, it's an old line," Damon said. "But it's true." He looked Bonnie up and down. "But, since you're all the way over there, I can't prove it to you."

"And saying stuff like that means I am never going to sit that close to you again."

Bonnie thought there was another question. "Did you bite your girlfriends before you became a vampire?"

Damon shrugged. "Yeah."

"Because at least one of them really went for that," Bonnie said. She wondered how much of who Damon was came down to what Katherine might have done to him all those years ago, and what was already in him and had just been shaped by him living the way he did.

"She encouraged it, and reciprocated," Damon said.

"Too much information," Bonnie said.

"We're discussing biting, which is relevant to my interests, and you're asking questions, so giving you information shouldn't be a bad thing."

"I'm not going to share the same stuff with you," Bonnie said, and Damon frowned.

"It seems fair."

"For you to what, get your kicks at my expense, again?"

"You're here, using my library," Damon said.

"You offered." Bonnie rested her elbows on the table and stared at Damon. "This isn't an exchange thing, Damon. People do favors for each other even when they don't think they're going to get anything back."

"I know, it's just not as fun that way."

"If you want to avoid being set on fire, which is a real danger, try something new."

"What did you have in mind?"

"For a start, tell me about Emily, and help me find out more about her."

"But you're sitting all the way over there." Damon waved a hand at her. "That's not very sociable."

"You've been talking about biting like it's on your agenda, I have good reason to keep my distance."

"We're working together, remember? I'm not going to bite you," Damon said. "Or, talk about doing it, unless you bring it up first, does that work for you?"

"Yes, it does." Bonnie got up from her chair and came close to Damon, not sitting on the couch, but on the chair angled toward where he was resting.

They sat together for a couple of hours, with Bonnie reading from various journals and Damon adding details or contradicting what was said, and adding his own perspective or color commentary. Not all of it was completely believable, but enough of it could be verified that Bonnie thought he was mostly telling the truth.

"How are you two doing?" Stefan asked as he poked his head in the room, and Bonnie glanced up, startled.

Damon didn't seem shocked that his brother was checking up on them. "What took you so long?"

"Elena and I were busy."

"I'm sure you were," Damon said and winked at Bonnie. "You need to keep it down, I could hear you two from all the way down here."

"Then don't listen," Stefan said, and Bonnie coughed.

"Sorry, Bonnie."

"I'm sure you'll hear about it later anyway," Damon said and grinned at Stefan. "Girl talk, you know."

"I have heard of such things," Stefan said, and Damon laughed.

"I guess you're trying to tell Bonnie that Elena is done with your romantic interlude and is ready to leave."

"She didn't put it like that," Stefan said.

"But it's time for me to go," Bonnie said.

"If you wanted to take a couple of the journals with you, it's fine. You don't have to look at them here," Damon said, and breathed out sharply as he lay back down.

"I don't mind, it's good to get another perspective on these things," Bonnie said. "Besides, we understand each other now."

"Yes, we do," Damon said, and as Bonnie realized he was staring at her, she grabbed her purse and gave him a little wave, unsure of what the proper thing to do in this situation was.

"Anyway, I'll see you when I see you." She paused in the doorway and glanced from Stefan to Damon. "Make sure he takes care of himself, will you?"

"I'd rather you did that job," Damon said, and Stefan shook his head slightly.

"I'll walk you out."


	4. Chapter 4

It wasn't long before Damon was completely healed, and Bonnie got to watch him demonstrate how much better he was feeling because he wanted to show off.

"What are we doing?"

"We're going outside. I've been cooped up in that house for days, and I've got to get some air."

"You opened a window," Bonnie said. "Usually people use the door when they want to go outdoors."

"I'm not most people."

"All right." Bonnie gave him that much but crossed her arms to show she wasn't sold on the idea yet. "What am I doing?"

"Coming along."

"I don't think so."

"I want company," Damon said and he was moving up and down on the balls of his feet, looking almost boyish, which Bonnie couldn't quite believe. "Please?"

"Fine." Bonnie went to window, looked outside, and estimated the distance from where she was standing to the ground. "You want to just jump out?"

"Yeah." Damon came up beside her, and Bonnie shivered. His energy was contagious, and Bonnie slid her gaze sideways at him. "Will you catch me?" She swung her legs over the sill, and balanced there for a second, then pushed herself off the edge. Landing was going to be a problem, she'd known that, but either Damon would catch her, or she would try lifting her own weight at the last second.

When she landed in Damon's arms, Bonnie laughed. "That was different."

Damon twirled around and set Bonnie on her feet. "You're in a weird mood."

"Not really, I just wanted to see if you'd catch me."

"And if I hadn't?"

"Then we'd be having a different conversation," Bonnie said. "Besides, I've got to start stepping out of what I'm used to, and since that includes you, I'd like to know what that means."

"That's fair," Damon said.

"You don't seem surprised."

"When you find out you've got power, eventually you're going to want to find out what your limits are. Lucky for you, I'm very good at that."

"You've said that before."

"But then you didn't want to really find out what I meant."

"Okay." Bonnie nodded. "Now that we're outside, what else have you been wanting to do?"

"Have a bite of someone," Damon said, and let out a whine. "I don't see you going along with that one, so I'll take my second choice."

"What's that?"

"Find someone else to bite."

"I'm not going to let you kill someone."

"I wasn't planning on it. Remember, I have to stay under the radar, and another murder is going to draw attention to us again."

"There are other vampires around, they're not being as careful," Bonnie said.

"That's because they're hoping we get blamed for the deaths."

"You're responsible for a few of them," Bonnie said.

"I know that." Damon was still shifting back and forth restlessly, and Bonnie knew she had to work fast before he lost interest. "Why are you all squirrelly?"

Damon raised an eyebrow, and Bonnie tried another word. "Fidgety, like you can't calm down."

"I told you that I want a bite to eat. I'm hungry, Bonnie."

"Where would you go to do that? I mean, if I wasn't here?"

"There's the town, and people are always walking home drunk from bars." When Bonnie gave him an even more disapproving look, Damon cleared his throat. "Then there's the woods, although they're not my personal favorite. Ideally, some things should be done in a more intimate setting."

"I don't see how sucking someone's blood can be romantic," Bonnie said.

"You're missing out," Damon said.

"Enough with the blood talk." Bonnie stared at Damon and decided that he wasn't going to focus on anything else until they got this resolved somehow. "How long can you go without having human blood?"

"If I didn't mind being weak, I wouldn't have to drink it at all."

"But you won't do that."

"No."

Bonnie chewed her lip. "If you had a little blood, would you have to kill the person? Could you stop?"

"Yes," Damon said, as if Bonnie shouldn't have asked such a stupid question. "Is there a point to this question and answer game?"

"There is." Bonnie twisted her hands together and then looked Damon straight in the eye. "You can do it, drink from me I mean."

"Excuse me?"

"I said that you can have some of my blood."

"I heard you, and I remember you telling me that me having any of your blood was never going to happen."

"I changed my mind."

"Should I ask why?" Damon stepped closer, but kept his hands in his pockets as he waited.

"I want to see if you're telling the truth. And, if you can keep a promise."

"Is that a dare?" Damon asked.

"It's an offer, which I will take back if you keep being a jerk."

"I wouldn't think of it." Damon pulled his hands free of his jacket and extended one to Bonnie. "Did you want to sit down?"

"I'm going to need to?"

Damon twitched. "It's very possible."

"Okay."

Damon led her to a bench just off the pathway leading up to the door of the boardinghouse, and Bonnie sat down, breathing fast.

"You don't have to do this," Damon said. "I'll find somebody."

"I know, and you'll attack them and mess with their head so they can't tell anyone what happened." She had seen the news reports, and even before she knew that there were vampires in town, it had seemed like there was something odd going on. "No, I said I would do this, and I'm going to. Where did you want to do this? On my neck?"

"That will be sort of noticeable, don't you think?"

"I am not taking off my clothes out here, or inside for that matter," Bonnie said.

"I didn't suggest that," Damon said. "But maybe another time we can work something out."

"Funny," Bonnie said, and on an impulse, held out her wrist. "I can wear something over it."

"Like a band-aid?" Damon's tone implied that was a bad idea.

"Or a bracelet, I've got some that would hide it." When Damon didn't move, Bonnie waved her wrist at him. "It's this or nothing."

"With an offer like that, what else can I do?" Damon brought Bonnie's wrist to his mouth with a light touch and sniffed her skin. Bonnie trembled, and gritted her teeth, waiting for him to strike, but he didn't lean in and bite right away. First he kissed the skin where her veins stood out, and then he looked up at her one more time, to be sure. She had seen the way he looked when he was about to bite someone, but it had been when he was rushing at her, and there hadn't been much time to really see what happened, but now she could, and he was letting her look. That was an answer she could be satisfied with.

"Yes," Bonnie said, and Damon's mouth rested against her pulse for a second, and then she felt his teeth.

It hurt, that much she'd been expecting, and Bonnie had to bite her lip to give herself something else to focus on, but that was just as Damon's teeth went in, and then it didn't hurt anymore.

"Oh." Bonnie leaned back, feeling dizzy and was really glad she was sitting down because all of a sudden she was warm, and things were going fuzzy in a way that only happened when she was having a really good time. "That's-"

Damon kept feeding, and Bonnie would have been timing him, but the feeling rushed over her and she gasped, arching back, and then relaxing. "I think you've had enough," she said, her voice faint. "I mean, I don't think I can do that all night." She waited, not sure if she could literally set him on fire when she still felt like she was floating, but she would do it if she had to.

"Maybe not all night, but there are other ways to pass the time," Damon said, lifting his head and giving her wrist a final lick.

Damon had color in his cheeks, like he'd been running or doing some other kind of exercise, and Bonnie, still coming down from her own high, glanced away self consciously. "You have blood on your mouth, you'll want to clean that up."

"What I would like is to kiss you, but like you said, blood." Damon wiped his mouth off, and Bonnie looked back at him. "All better?"

"Yeah, you look fine."

"So do you."

"I meant-"

Damon smiled. "I know." He let go of Bonnie's wrist, but turned her hand over and kissed her knuckles. "Thank you."

"You're welcome."

"Do you feel up to moving yet?" Damon asked.

"Is it always this overwhelming?"

"Pretty much, it can be good or bad, it's up to the vampire, and the person they're feeding on," Damon added. "The point is that even though it hurts, you still like it."

"But if you can make people feel like this without killing them, why do it at all?"

"It's like stopping before you've had enough to eat," Damon said. "Besides, we don't always kill people, just some of the time."

"That tiny detail isn't winning your any points," Bonnie said.

"How about me following directions?"

"You did stop when I told you to," Bonnie said and smiled a little because Damon was trying to look earnest and failing. "All right, so what do you do with somebody after you've eaten?"

"I don't usually hang around."

"But you were with Caroline, and you must have have dated other people." That had been freaky, because Caroline and Damon had gone from complete strangers to showing up at Elena's house and acting like a normal couple in a week or so.

"Yes, I have dated people," Damon said, and shrugged. "Do you want to get dinner? We could go to the Grill, or I can make something."

"You cook?"

"In theory." When Bonnie snorted, Damon elaborated. "I know how to cook, and I've even been told I'm pretty good at it."

"Do you even have any food?"

"Not much, but we keep stuff for guests."

"Like crackers and soda?" Bonnie asked, and frowned. "I don't know why, but I want pancakes."

Damon lifted one shoulder. "That's no problem."

He led the way inside to a huge kitchen that Bonnie had to stare at briefly.

"You want to get a bowl and the eggs?" Damon asked.

"Where are they?" Bonnie asked.

"Surprise me," Damon said as he pulled other ingredients out of the cupboard.

When she focused on something she wanted to find, it didn't take Bonnie more than a second to know where it was, and she opened the right door and grabbed a large mixing bowl. The eggs were likewise easily located, and Bonnie cracked them into the bowl. When Damon dropped a spoon and several tablespoons of vanilla into the mixture, Bonnie glanced up. "What's that for?"

"Why not?"

"It's not traditionally part of the recipe."

Damon mimed a stirring motion, and Bonnie picked up the spoon while he fiddled with the knobs on the stove. "This is the way I learned how to make pancakes."

"Who did you learn from?"

"This witch I knew a few years ago. She had a sweet tooth." He took a smaller spoon out of a drawer and scooped up a bit of batter, tasting it. "That's enough, here, I'll get them started." He held the bowl at an angle and then poured some batter into a skillet.

Bonnie watched him from where she was sitting on a stool, elbows resting on the counter. "I've seen you guys eat, but I didn't think it was for anything but show."

"It is mostly, but it tastes good, and why shouldn't we indulge?" Damon reached behind the flour and produced a bottle of liquor.

"What about that? Do you just like to indulge in everything?"

"In a lot of things." Damon poured himself a drink and offered Bonnie one too.

"What is it?"

"Bourbon."

"I'd rather have beer."

Damon smiled and went to the fridge.

"What?"

"Some girls would have said they didn't drink."

"Well, I do sometimes, and tonight I want one, so give it here," Bonnie said and Damon twisted the cap off and handed the beer over. Bonnie took a sip and set the bottle down as Damon neatly flipped the pancakes with a spatula onto a plate and set it in front of Bonnie. She picked up a fork and cut off a piece.

Damon piled most of the pancakes onto a dish, turned off the burner, and slid his own portion onto a plate. Then he sat down, digging in while Bonnie chewed slowly. "Will that do?"

"This is really good," Bonnie said, and shook her head. "Why am I drinking beer?"

"You didn't want the bourbon," Damon said, and turned to grab the plate of pancakes cooling by the stove. "And you weren't interested in going out somewhere."

"That's because I'm sort of worn out."

"In a good way."

"Don't look at me like that, there isn't any more where that came from, not today."

"Some other day, then?" Damon asked.

"Don't push it," Bonnie said, and Damon let it drop. "But, if you wanted to, you could still take me out to dinner, someplace nice."

"Where?"

"I don't know, you should come up with something."

"Oh, I should?" Damon asked, leaning over the counter, mouth curving upwards, and Bonnie dipped her finger in the mixing bowl, and flicked the batter at his face.

"Yes."

Damon reared back and wiped the batter off his face and licked his fingers. His gaze went to the bowl, and Bonnie shook her head.

"No, don't even-" She tried to grab the bowl first, but Damon had the advantage of faster reflexes, and he used them to yank it out of reach, and Bonnie had to think fast. One hop got her off the stool, and another put her in reach of a towel, which she used to shield her face when Damon threw batter at her. Ducking out of the way, Bonnie put her focus on the bowl, and it tore itself out of Damon's hands.

"Not fair."

"You cheated first," Bonnie said and began returning fire.

The thing that drew their attention away from their battle was somebody laughing, and they looked around to see Elena and Stefan in the doorway.

"Oh my god," Elena said, and covered her mouth with one hand, trying to stifle her laughter. "You look like two little kids."

Damon blinked. "What are you talking about?" Without looking he flung more batter at Bonnie, who caught it square on the cheek and yelped.

"Time out, we're being adults right now, okay?"

"Sure." Damon was eying Stefan, who hadn't said a word, but was regarding them both with his arms folded. "Are you going to ground us?"

"As an adult, I'm sure you can manage to take care of the cleanup yourself." Stefan turned to go, and added. "By the way, you have batter on your nose."

Elena took her hand away from her mouth long enough to giggle, and pointed at Bonnie. "Now you can't tell me it's nothing."

"Shut up," Bonnie said. "Wait, do I have any in my hair?"

"Definitely," Elena said and grinned at them both as Bonnie threw the bowl to Damon and began trying to figure out how much of a mess they'd really made. "You two are sort of cute, well, Bonnie is, but you're just sort of demented," she said to Damon, and he smirked at her.

"I made breakfast."

"At midnight," Elena said, and closed her mouth hard. "You cooked?"

"He did, and it wasn't bad," Bonnie said.

"No, it was fantastic," Damon said, and Bonnie groaned.

"Yes, it was, now can we deal with this? I need a shower."

"Go on upstairs, I can take care of this," Damon said.

"I don't have any clean clothes," Bonnie said.

"Borrow something of mine."

Bonnie knew Elena was listening to every word and that it would get back to Stefan. "That's sweet, but I can just run home and change."

"You're already here, just go on, I'm sure there's something in there that will fit you."

"Fine." Bonnie took the stairs at a jog with Elena beside her.

"You're borrowing clothes now? What have you two been doing?"

"Nothing you need to worry about, I'm handling him."

"That's what I mean, how much handling are you doing?" Elena asked, tugging Bonnie into the bathroom and pulling a stack of towels off the shelf.

"I feel weird going through his stuff," Bonnie said and Elena made an impatient noise.

"He said you could, go on. I left some shorts here the other day, I'll grab them for you."

Bonnie opened the nearest drawer and grabbed a t-shirt that went past her waist and had long sleeves, and then Elena was back with the shorts. She didn't think Elena had seen the bite. but she made sure to keep it out of sight until she got into the shower. As she tilted her head back to rinse her hair, Bonnie heard the door open. She knew who it had to be and was glad he couldn't see her.

"Damon, what the heck do you want that can't wait five minutes?"

"I thought you'd want to cover up your wrist, so I'll just leave this on the counter." He paused in the doorway, and Bonnie peeked out to glare at him."Go on, get, you can have the shower in a couple minutes." She projected heat warningly at him, and Damon laughed as he went out and closed the door.

Even though they'd done something very intimate, Bonnie still got a twisting feeling in her stomach when she came out of the bathroom in Damon's shirt. She could tell he was looking at her in it, and didn't wait for a comment, and motioned at the open door instead. "Well, are you going to just sit there?"

Damon was sitting on the bed, and caught the way Bonnie looked at him and got up. "Elena is downstairs if you need a cathartic lecture you can stay here if you want." He yanked his shirt over his head as he walked by Bonnie and she sat down on the edge of the bed, drying her hair absently. She turned the bandage over in her hands, and finally peeled the backing off and pressed it over the bite wound. When she pulled the sleeve of the shirt back down, the bandage was hidden, and Bonnie was relieved. She wasn't ashamed of what she'd done, but she didn't want to have to explain herself just yet.

When the water had stopped running, Bonnie tapped lightly on the door. "Are you dressed?"

"Enough for your modesty," Damon said and Bonnie went in. "She hung the towel up, and Damon turned away from the sink, and handed her a bandage while he brushed his teeth.

Bonnie frowned at the toothbrush.

"I just ate," Damon said, and continued brushing his teeth like it was something he did every day, and Bonnie realized it might very well be.

"Do you have an extra one I can use?"

"Sure." Damon rummaged around in one of the cabinets, and handed a toothbrush to Bonnie. "Here you go."

"Thanks." Bonnie nudged Damon's hip. "Move over."

Damon let himself be moved, but returned the favor when he was ready to rinse his mouth out.

"It's like a morning after, only we didn't have a night before," Bonnie said, because that was exactly what it seemed like, and she wanted to know if Damon was having the same thought.

"A bit, yeah." Damon leaned on the counter and watched Bonnie finish brushing her teeth, and then fuss with her hair. She didn't have any clips or even a brush, but it was the principle of the thing, and that at least didn't require looking at Damon directly when he was giving her all of his speculative attention.

"That doesn't mean we have to go back and do the in between stuff," Bonnie said.

"Skipping things is bad, it unbalances the world as we know it," Damon said.

"Not kissing or having sex with you is going to destabilize the universe?" Bonnie asked.

Damon held up a finger sternly. "How do you know it won't?"

"Well, as we both know, I haven't done any of that yet, and the world hasn't ended." Bonnie let go of her hair, twisting it wasn't working, not without bobby pins.

"But see, now there was a moment when you could have, and that's what's missing," Damon said.

Bonnie stared at him in the mirror. "This comes up a lot, but I'd still like to know if you actually stop to think about what you're saying, or do you just let it come out as is?"

"I like to say what's on my mind."

"I've noticed." Bonnie had been using her fingers as a comb, and at least gotten her hair out of her face, anything else would have to wait until she got home. "That's it, I'm done." When Damon didn't immediately move out of the doorway, Bonnie poked him in the stomach. "Excuse me, I need to get by."

Damon moved, but Bonnie brushed a hand over where she'd prodded him, and as he breathed in, Bonnie looked at him over her shoulder.

"Thanks for breakfast."

"Same to you," Damon said, and smiled sweetly when Bonnie huffed in exasperation at him. "I'll walk you out."

"If you do that, Stefan is going to assume that you've got some hold over me, or that I'm part of your master plan."

"Who says you're not?"

"For that, I am going to insist you escort me out, and I'll let you and Stefan have one of your little talks," Bonnie said, and when they were on the stairs, grabbed Damon's hand, knowing that Stefan and Elena would see, and she was fine with that.

"Nice to see you, Stefan, Damon, remember, dinner, you owe me," Bonnie said at the door, and skipped down the stairs, Elena grabbing her arm tightly.

"What? And also how?"

"Is that a question, or have you decided?"

"Stop that, I mean it, Bonnie. You just told Damon to take you to dinner?"

"He owes me dinner out."

"Why?"

"Do I need a reason to want to have a night out?"

"When it's Damon that's the other half of this date, then you do," Elena said. She wasn't happy, and Bonnie had expected that, but she wasn't going to change her mind, and told Elena that.

"Bonnie, I'm not saying that Damon is the worst vampire we know, no, wait, I am. He threatened you, tried to kill you, and you're chasing after him?"

"I'm trying an alternate strategy."

"Is this a contest, you have to prove that you're as good a witch as Emily?"

"No, that's not it, and I know I can't compete with what Emily did. At least not yet, I'm not ready for that."

"But you have goals," Elena said.

"There's nothing wrong with that, the guidance counselors have been after us for years to get an idea of what we want out of life."

"Yeah, but that shouldn't include playing games with a psychotic vampire."

"This isn't a game, Elena, I told you I know what I'm doing."

"How far is this going to go?" Elena asked, and that was the crux of it, that Elena was worried about her best friend, and Bonnie knew what Elena would do to protect the people she loved.

"Only as far as I want it to," Bonnie said.

"Do you know where that's going to be?"

"Not yet, but I'm working on it."

"Work faster, because Damon isn't a very patient person."

"He can be, with the right incentive," Bonnie said.

"You are not a prize for him to win."

"I know you want to help, Elena, but I don't need to be protected. Remember, I can start fires whenever I want to, and Damon knows I won't hesitate to do that to him."

"He doesn't mind?"

"I'm getting the impression that Damon likes it when girls stand up to him, and that he doesn't mind it when they're in charge some of the time."

"In what sense?" Elena asked.

"A very general one," Bonnie said, as Elena was staring at her as if she'd announced she wanted to take up nude skydiving.

"How did you reach this new understanding of him?"

"Through being around him, you know that he and I talk and do stuff."

"Whatever that means, you've been holding back on me."

"I tell you the important parts," Bonnie said.

"Not all of them, if you're talking like this."

Bonnie grabbed Elena's hands and held on firmly. "I promise you, this is what I want to be doing, maybe not what I thought would happen when we started school this year, but I'm doing good, and I'm not bored."

"Not being in trouble is even better."

"I agree, and I'm not. So stop worrying so much, you've got to save all your energy for other things. Like Stefan." Bonnie grinned at Elena. "How can you be so perky after you've spent all afternoon having sex with him?"

"We weren't having sex all afternoon." Elena blushed. "All right, most of it, but not all."  
"I thought so," Bonnie said.

"How could you tell?" Elena asked.

"You have this glow after you've seen him, and you were practically walking on air when you caught us having a food fight."

"Yeah," Elena said, and smiled.

"How was it?" Bonnie asked.

"Do you interrogate Caroline like this?"

"All the time, come on, spill."

"Caroline told you, I don't need to get into it."

"See, this isn't the same, because your vampire boyfriend is into romantic gestures, so I need to hear about it."

"You're so nosy," Elena said, but wasn't upset, and plainly wanted to share with somebody.

"Okay, so there isn't anything on what it's like, and maybe that's a good thing? Because otherwise people would be trying to sleep with vampires every chance they could."

"Is that so?" This sounded promising, and Bonnie tugged on Elena's arm. "Keep going."

"You haven't gone there with Damon."

"No."

"Do you plan to?"

Bonnie shrugged.

"You said that Stefan is romantic, what's Damon to you?"

"Inventive," Bonnie said.

"That's harsh."

"It's better than what I used to call him. But go on, you were telling me about Stefan."

"He likes to let me lead," Elena said. "And he knows what he's doing, as in he really knows." She was blushing, but grinning, and Bonnie returned the smile.

"Very nice."

"I'm not saying that you should go after Damon, but if you do, be in charge."

"I don't have a problem with that," Bonnie said.

"There's another issue, besides Damon being slightly psycho, he's still in love with Katherine."

That was certainly figuring in Bonnie's thoughts lately, and she couldn't very well blame Damon for being emotional about this woman he loved, but she had started to hope that there was a place between liking and passion and that they'd begun to slide the rest of the way there. Consequently, Damon's very likely insane girlfriend wasn't someone Bonnie could put out of her mind.

"She's still in the tomb, we checked, and I heard the vampires."

"But if it's opened, then people will die, and Damon is going to side with Katherine," Elena said.

"I know."

"It's a big risk, he might even try to give you to Katherine as a gift."

"Thanks, Elena, I already thought of that."

"Then why are you talking to me about having sex with him?"

"It's not exactly the same thing. I can have a good time and still remember who he is."

"It sounds like a lot of work."

"Yeah, but that's why it's so much fun."

"Now I can tell that you've been around Damon too much," Elena said, and they hugged and said goodnight.

There was a new bartender at the Grill, and Bonnie caught him giving her a second look when she was skipping class.

He finished wiping down the counter and came out from around the bar. "Don't you go to the high school?"

"Yeah."

"I did too." He stuck his hand out. "Ben."

"I know who you are, you were on the football team, and even took them to the state championships your senior year," Bonnie said.

"I did," Ben nodded. "You're on the cheer leading squad."

"You remember me?"

"Yeah." Ben smiled. "You were good. So, if you're here, then I guess you're playing hooky?"

"Sort of." Bonnie glanced around, and was glad to see that nobody was looking her way and that the lunch crowd had already been through. "You won't tell?"

"That depends, would you do me a favor?"

"What's that?"

"A friend of mine is making me go out with her on Friday. She's taking this guy she met at the library, and she says that we have go on a double date. The only thing is-" Ben spread his hands.

"You don't have a date."

"It's bad, I think Anna is going to hurt me." Ben adopted a pathetically hopeful expression. "Would you mind rescuing me from my best friend?"

"That doesn't sound like you like like her very much."

"No, I do, it's just that she came to town and has been busy with this project, and we haven't hung out a lot, and now she's telling me I have to come along so she doesn't scare this guy off." Ben ducked his head. "She's a bit of a geek, but she's nice, and I want this to work out for her."

Bonnie didn't answer right away, and Ben stepped back. "I'm sorry, that wasn't the best way to do this, I didn't mean to offend you."

"It wasn't the smoothest thing I've ever seen," Bonnie said. "I'll tell you right off, I'm not looking to date anyone else right now."

"You've got a boyfriend?" Ben laughed. "Okay, tell me to shut up, please."

"Not exactly, but we're deciding what we are. How about this, what are you supposed to go and do with your best friend and this guy?"

"Go and see a movie. I think it's something romantic?"

"Okay, I go along, and then I'll leave early, and you can slip out too." She didn't want to have to say it, but decided that it wouldn't hurt. "And, if you don't want to do that-"

"No, that would be amazing, and I won't be in trouble with Anna, or your maybe-boyfriend." Ben smiled. "Thank you so much, you're amazing. We're meeting up at the movies around seven, does that work for you?"

"That's fine," Bonnie said. It wasn't like her to go out and do something without checking with somebody else first, but this was Mystic Falls, and Ben seemed nice enough that she'd just tell Damon to meet her a little later than usual on Friday night. Anyway, it would stir things up, and that could be worthwhile. "I'll see you then."

Ben nodded at her, and cast another lingering look at her as he went back to his duties, and Bonnie hid her smile until she was on her way home.


	5. Chapter 5

There was only one movie theater in Mystic Falls, which meant there was no way for Bonnie to have gotten the directions wrong. She wasn't the first one there, Ben was waiting with a short girl with long hair, and a third person who turned around when Bonnie came up.

"Hey, Jeremy."

"Hi, Bonnie."

"Well, you two know each other already," the girl said, and Ben cleared his throat.

"Sorry, Bonnie this is Anna."

Bonnie lifted a hand in greeting. "Hi."

"Sorry Ben roped you into this," Anna said. "He's been trying to avoid being seen with me in front of other people for years."

Ben nudged Anna in the side and smiled painfully at Bonnie.

"I should warn you in advance I don't spend a lot of time out of the house." Anna grinned a little too widely, and Bonnie blinked.

"Am I being freaky again?" Anna asked Ben in a low voice, and he grimaced.

"More than a bit."

"Yeah, but that's sort of normal for you, right?" Jeremy asked.

"Where did the two of you meet again?" Bonnie asked.

"In the library, I was doing research for a paper."

"What on?"

"The town's history, and the vampires."

"Vampires?" Bonnie kept her expression confused and glanced at Anna for more details.

"There were vampires in Mystic Falls, well, that's what the evidence says, anyhow, and I should know, I gathered a lot of it."

"Like what?"

"All the animal attacks, the diaries of the settlers, they all point to there being vampires in this town."

"Or, that the people made that up to cope with all the bad stuff that was happening because of the war," Jeremy said, sounding more reasonable than Bonnie had ever heard him.

"But what about the animal attacks that have been happening lately?" Anna asked and pushed a finger into Jeremy's chest. "How do you explain that?"

"It could be that there's been an increase in the mountain lion population. Sheriff Forbes said that a man was attacked by one, remember?"

"A good cover story," Anna said, and scoffed.

"You're really into this vampire theory," Bonnie said.

"That's not the only thing that the Founders talk about," Anna said, stepping closer to Bonnie.

"No?"

"Their journals mention witches and other unclean creatures."

"Okay, Anna, that's enough, you're going over the top again," Ben said, and pulled her back to stand next to him again. "Sorry, she's sort of obsessed with this stuff," Ben said to Bonnie as they followed the other two into the theater.

"I got that."

"What are we seeing?"

"It's a revival of some old vampire movie, Anna said she'd never seen it, and I guess Jeremy's a fan." Ben didn't look excited.

"You don't like the movie?"

"I'm not into vampires that much, not since Anna started getting so-" Ben couldn't finish his sentence, but Bonnie could tell that he wasn't happy with what Anna was into.

"Why do you go along with it?"

"She's my best friend, and the only one I've got in town."

"People know you here."

"No, they used to. I'm not the football star anymore, and that changes things."

"I guess it would," Bonnie said. "Why did you come back?"

"It was Anna's idea," Ben said.

"Because of the vampires?"

"You've got it."

"She's sure that there are vampires in Mystic Falls." Bonnie laughed, but had been watching Ben's reactions, and he flinched a very little bit.

"I guess so, I'm just helping out."

"That's nice of you," Bonnie said, and saw that Anna had taken Jeremy's arm and was leading him toward the door. She couldn't grab him now, but she wasn't going to leave him alone.

"What else can you do?"

By now they were inside the theater, and it was so dark that Bonnie couldn't see if there were any other people inside. "Let's sit in the back, you get the best view from there." She might have walked into this place with him, but she wasn't doing it without knowing what she was doing. They were sitting in great seats, right near the exit, and Bonnie knew that there was going to be a reason to run for it in a second or two.

Acting like she'd just thought of it, Bonnie leaned over toward Ben. "Do you mind getting us some popcorn?"

"Sure." Ben got up, and as soon as he did, Bonnie slipped one hand into her purse, and pulled  
out her phone. She punched in a text message, and slid her phone back out of sight. She couldn't say anything to Jeremy, not outright, but there were ways around that. Not too long after, Jeremy stood up, whispering frantically to Anna, who didn't seem happy that he was leaving, and he hurried up the aisle to where Bonnie was sitting.

"I need to go home."

"Why, what's wrong?"

"It's Elena, something is wrong at home." Jeremy didn't like to show he was upset, he was a teenage boy, but now even his best wasn't good enough, and Bonnie hopped up.

"I'll come with you."

"Thanks." Jeremy went for the back door, and Bonnie pointed at the fire exit. "This way's faster."

"Good idea."

Bonnie didn't turn around to see what Ben's reaction was, she had to get them out of there now, but Jeremy was shaking his head when they stepped out into the alley.

"Anna was really pissed that I had to go."

"I'm sure she understands why," Bonnie said, and hurried Jeremy along, wanting to get out of the narrow space as quickly as they could.

"Sometimes I don't knew what's up with her, actually most of the time. She acts like she doesn't know what people act like."

"Maybe she's not from around here?" Bonnie asked.

"She said she's been home schooled, that could be it."

"Or, you're both wrong," Anna said, appearing in front of them, and Bonnie yanked Jeremy closer  
to her.

"Where did you come from?" Jeremy asked.

"Inside. Where you left me." Anna looked past Jeremy to Bonnie.

"That was you, wasn't it?"

"I got a text message," Jeremy said. "My sister is hurt, stop being crazy and move, I need to get home."

"Not yet," Ben said, and Bonnie swore.

"It turns out that you aren't a bad liar," Ben said. "We had a bet going over which of you was going to be the easiest prey, and I lost."

"Thanks," Bonnie said. "Now back off or I'll show you how wrong you really are."

"You're not going to do anything," Ben said, and he was suddenly behind Bonnie, and had her by the throat.

"Let go of me."

"I'm not going to do that, not until Jeremy tells us where he hid the journal."

"Get off her," Jeremy said, and lunged forward, but Anna put herself between them, and shoved him into the side of a building.

"The Gilbert journal, where is it?"

"I lent it to somebody who wanted to look at it."

"Who?" Anna asked.

"My teacher."

"What's his name?" Anna lifted Jeremy off his feet with one hand and he struggled to breath.  
"Stop hurting him," Bonnie said, and jabbed Ben in the stomach. He grunted by then laughed and tightened his hold on her throat. "We don't need you, witch, not in one piece, you can still do magic without an arm, so don't try me."

Bonnie went still, but only so that she could be prepared for the next opening when it came.

"Mr. Saltzman," Jeremy said, and Anna dropped him on the ground. He was still breathing, Bonnie could see that, but he was unconscious, and she breathed out in relief.

"That's all we need from him," Anna said and turned away from him. "Let's go get the journal, bring the witch."

When Anna turned away, Bonnie knew this was her chance, and drew herself inward and then pushed out, like she was clearing the air with her will. Ben let go of her, crying out in pain as he tried to put out the flames that had sprung up on his arms and legs, but Bonnie circled around him, keeping her distance from Anna, who had spun around.

"Witch," Ben said.

"Yeah, let me show you another trick." The cement around Ben's feet had been paved recently, and the tar was still fresh. It went up with barely a spark from Bonnie, and she smiled at Anna, who glared at her from over the line of flames.

"Want to see if I can throw fire? I've been wanting to find out."

"No, I'll pass." Anna backed away, glancing at Ben, who was still trying to put out the rest of the flames. "Good luck with that."

"Anna, wait, you've got to help me."

"I don't have to do anything, except what I came here for," Anna said. "I guess I'll get that spell done another way." She took a step, and then was gone, leaving the three of them in the alley together.

"What about me?" Ben asked.

"I haven't decided what I should do with you," Bonnie said, and stepped around him and went to check on Jeremy. When she was satisfied that he was all right, she pulled her phone out of her purse, dialed. "I think I'll get a second opinion. Hey, it's me, I've got a question for me. Meet me in back of the movie theater."

"Who was that?" Ben asked, the flames were finally out, but he was still surrounded by fire, and was trying not to show how much that bothered him.

"Remember my sort of boyfriend?" Bonnie asked.

"Yeah."

Bonnie smiled. "He's a vampire too."

"One of the Salvatores?"

"Damon Salvatore, actually," Damon said from behind them.

Ben jumped when Damon spoke, and Bonnie sighed.

"Grand entrances are your thing, aren't they?"

"Part of the whole vampire mystique," Damon said, and put a hand on her back, out of sight, but deliberately pausing to give her a close look.

"I'm fine, he just grabbed me, and the other one, the girl knocked Jeremy out."  
Damon checked Jeremy's pulse. "He'll wake up in a minute. This girl, what did she look like?"

"Young, pretty, said her name was Anna."

"Did she?"

"You know her?"

"Hey, you, whatever your name is. Anna said she was going to get revenge for what happened to her mother?"

"She said that the Gilberts had hurt her family, and that she wanted the tomb open," Ben said.

"Who is she?" Bonnie asked.

"The daughter of a vampire named Pearl, who was one of Katherine's friends. She ran the apothecary and was being courted by Jonathon Gilbert until he found out that she was a vampire. Then she got rounded up with all the others."

"She's trapped in the tomb too."

"Along with twenty some other vampires."

"It's going to be really bad if it gets opened."

"Like they don't deserve it," Ben said.

"What?"  
"Those people, back then, they hurt Anna, so they should pay for it."

Damon stalked closer to Ben, keeping away from the flames but smiling dangerously. "You have no idea what these people deserve because you weren't there. I was, I saw it all, and don't ever try and tell me what should happen. You have no idea what revenge means." He sniffed at Ben. "You're so young you still don't know what you can do, and you couldn't even tell that a witch was onto your sad little game."

"She liked me," Ben said, and Damon stepped back.

"I'll let you handle this one."

"Thanks."

"What was the plan after you kidnapped me?"

"I'm not telling you, witch."

"In case you haven't noticed, you're in a bad position to be holding back on me," Bonnie said, and wiggled her fingers at the fire, and it moved closer to Ben. "Tell me what spell I was supposed to do."

"You were going to open the tomb."

"How?"  
"Emily's book, her spell book, it says how she did whatever she did, and since you're a witch too, you can do the same thing."

"Where is the grimoire?" Damon asked.  
Ben looked confused.

"The spell book," Bonnie said.

"We don't know, the Gilbert journal might say where, we weren't sure, that's why we need it."  
"Anna went to get the journal from Mr. Saltzman," Bonnie said to Damon.

"She'll rip his throat out," Ben said.

"Stop gloating and worry about your own well being," Damon said. "I don't need anything else from him. Unless you do, I'd say go ahead and get rid of him." He had his cell phone out and was calling somebody as he spoke.

"If I let you go, you'd come after me again, wouldn't you?" Bonnie asked.

Ben showed his teeth. "You'll never see it coming."

"You're right," Bonnie said. "I won't have to." She turned her hands palm up, and the flames swelled up and then Ben was consumed. It didn't take long, apparently fire and vampires were a combustible combination, and when there were just ashes left, she glanced at Damon.

"Did you get a hold of Stefan?"

"Yeah, he's going to the school." Damon came closer. "Are you all right?"

"I'm fine." She was shaking a little bit, but besides that, she didn't feel like she'd even strained when she was controlling the fire. "I'm getting better at that."

"Yeah."  
Bonnie stared at the ashes. "He can't come back from that, right?"

"No, fire's a good way to kill a vampire."

"Good to know," Bonnie said. She met Damon's eyes, and breathed out heavily. "Did you need something?"

"It can wait, we'd better go and see what Stefan's found out."

"He can handle Anna, right?"

"Stefan knows how to handle himself, but he doesn't always do what has to be done," Damon said.  
"Not like you."

"Or you." Damon crouched down and swung Jeremy up into his arms, which was plainly no trouble for him, and made for an interesting image as they went down the street.

"He would have come after me, or somebody else," Bonnie said.

"You're right, he would have."

"I did what I had to."

"I'm not arguing."

"For a change." Bonnie shoved her hands in her pockets so she couldn't see them shaking.  
"You'll feel better soon," Damon said.

"What, it all gets easier after the first time?" Bonnie asked.

"Yes." Damon shifted Jeremy to his other shoulder and pressed the doorbell.  
"When did you first see somebody die?"

"In war."

Bonnie hesitated to ask her next question, but then steeled herself. "And when did you start liking it?"

"You don't have to enjoy it, Bonnie, just be able to protect yourself and those you care about." He might have said more, but the door opened, and Elena stepped back so they could go inside.

"Stefan is still out looking for Mr. Saltzman," Elena said, her hands already going to Jeremy's forehead and searching for wounds. Her fingers rested on the bruises where Anna's fingers had squeezed on his throat. "Is she dead?"

"No, but the other one is," Damon said.

"I did it," Bonnie said, and her breathing was suddenly uneven. "I had to, he said that nobody would be safe."

Damon glanced at Bonnie and then at Elena. "I'll take Jeremy upstairs to his room and make sure he's all right."

"Thank you," Elena said, and wrapped her arms around Bonnie. "It's okay."

"No, it's not. I killed somebody tonight, Elena."

"You couldn't have done anything else."

"Are you sure?"

"If you said he was dangerous, then I believe you." Elena rested her head against Bonnie's shoulder. "I'll get you something to drink."

"They wanted me to do a spell, to open the tomb."

"Everybody wants that thing opened," Elena said.

"I'm getting tired of it too," Bonnie said.

"It's the waiting that's the worst." Elena led Bonnie to a chair and poured her a glass of wine.

"Isn't Jenna upstairs?"

"She's asleep, and she'd understand, go ahead."

"Can I have one too?" Damon asked, and Elena glared at him.

"Where were you when Bonnie and Jeremy were being attacked, and who hurt them?"

"Obviously I was somewhere else. Bonnie was on a date, and I didn't know there was a problem until she sent me a message."

Elena crossed her arms over her chest and stayed close to Bonnie. "The rest of it?"

"The other vampire is Anna, and her mother is trapped in the tomb."

"She's a vampire?" Elena shook her head. "Right, everyone who wants the town to pay for what happened back then is a vampire and they're all showing up because this is the right time for revenge." She hadn't stopped giving Damon unfriendly looks. "If you sent out a mass email to everybody you know just so you could have some backup-"

"I don't have a network of vampires that I consult with when I'm plotting mayhem."

"Somehow that makes me feel better," Bonnie said, and tapped her empty glass. Damon picked up the glass, sniffed it, and raised an eyebrow at Elena, who lifted one hand and then let it fall to her side.

"She's upset."

"Underage drinking, and with your aunt upstairs."

"Shut up," Bonnie said and grabbed Damon by his belt loop. "Get me another glass."

"Yes, dear," Damon said, and deftly poured more wine. "Anyone else?"

"I may want one," Stefan said from the doorway, and Elena hurried to his side.

"What happened, did you get the journal?"

"Somebody else had already been there, and they got the journal."

"Anna," Damon said, and when Stefan looked his way, nodded.

"Pearl's daughter."

Stefan frowned. "That's not good."

"No."

"She'll figure it out fast now that she has the journal, but we've got copies that the teacher made."

"Did he tell you what he's doing in Mystic Falls?" Damon asked.

"He came her for a job," Stefan said. "With the economy being the way it is, there aren't that many choices, there's nothing strange about that."

"That maybe be, but he's got this vibe to him that I don't trust."

"You don't trust anyone," Stefan said wearily and pulled a roll of papers out of his jacket. "Let's see what the journal said."

"It'll be like listening to Jonathon Gilbert all over again," Damon said. "What fun."

"You two knew him?" Elena asked.

"He was friends with our father, and he was one of the townspeople trying to find the vampires," Stefan said.

"That pocket watch you have?" Damon asked Bonnie, and she grabbed her purse and held it up.

"This one?"

"Where did you find it?" Elena asked, and went over to check to see if it had been damaged. She found the workings had been switched out and paused. "What happened to it?"

"It's not a watch, it's a compass, and it's meant to find vampires."

"This was Jonathan Gilbert's."

"He made it with that purpose in mind," Stefan said.

"That wasn't all he made," Damon said, and his lip curled.

"What?" Bonnie asked.

"He liked to invent things, what do you imagine he did when he found out there were vampires in Mystic Falls?"

"Went looking for them?" Elena asked, sounding like she knew where this was going, but still had to ask.

"They hunted them down, even though they were just doing what came naturally."

"Damon, they were killing people."

"So was the Union Army," Damon said.

"It's not the same thing."

"This isn't one you're going to win, Stefan." When that didn't deter Stefan, Damon turned to Elena. "Have you found any of the other things Gilbert made?"

"Like what?"

Stefan's expression was grim. "Get that box we were going through this morning."

"Okay." She brought it in and set it on the counter. "You mean this thing?" She pulled out the strange combination of metal and leather straps that had caught Stefan's attention earlier that day.

"Yes."

Damon was staring at the thing like he wanted to rip it out of Elena's hand and throw it out the window, and Stefan's expression wasn't entirely neutral either.

"What is it for?" Bonnie asked.

"It's like a gag, for vampires," Stefan said.

"That's putting it too nicely," Damon said. "You fit that into the vampire's mouth, and they can't bite you while you strap it onto their head. That way you can do whatever you want to them and they're helpless, especially if you use vervain or wood on them as well."

"You saw that happen," Elena said slowly.

"We did," Stefan said hoarsely.

"Was it Katherine?" Bonnie asked.

"Yes." Damon wasn't looking at any of them, but when he paced by Bonnie, she put a hand out to stop him. It landed on his stomach, and probably seemed odd to Elena and Stefan, but it got Damon's attention and that was what she was after.

"Will Anna try and hurt them?"

"She doesn't care about anyone but her mother," Damon said. "It's a single minded sentimentality I can admire."

"You share that with her," Stefan said, taking his eyes off the copied pages to chide his brother, and Elena cut him off.

"That isn't helping, so stop, both of you. Can we stop Anna from doing this?"

"You might want to," Damon said, and glanced at Bonnie when her hand clenched on his shirt.

"I've always been honest about what I want."

"I know," Bonnie said. She didn't want him to lie or tell her that he had suddenly changed his mind, but she had hoped that little things along the way meant more than just being a good time.

"Are you going to try and stop this?" Damon asked.

"Don't threaten her," Elena said, and Damon held a hand up.

"I'm talking to the witch."

"I will take care of my family," Bonnie said. "If you and Katherine or whoever else is in that tomb wants to hurt them, I will stop you." She took a fortifying breath. "Even if I have to hurt you." She didn't want to do it, but now she knew how to kill a vampire, and she could do it again.

"Yeah, I know you will," Damon said, and it was like he had been waiting to hear that, and he put a hand under her elbow and drew her forward, and brought their foreheads together and rested there as Bonnie got her breathing under control again. When they were breathing in sync,

Damon pulled back, and kissed her temple. "Let's go do this thing."

Bonnie nodded and wiped her face.

"You're not serious," Stefan said, eyes on Bonnie.

"No, I am. If we hurry, we might be able to stop Anna."

"And if you don't?" Elena asked, giving Damon her full attention in a way that meant she was thinking about how to get between him and Bonnie, even if it was an extremely bad idea.

"Then we'll see." Damon wrapped an arm around Bonnie's waist. "Hang on, it'll be faster this way."

"I hate this part," Bonnie said, and caught a glimpse of Stefan doing the same with Elena, and then the world was blur of light and color, and it was easier to shut her eyes until it was over.

"We're here," Damon said in a low voice and stepped away, letting Bonnie get her balance, and then they moved toward the tomb.

Stefan was right on his brother's heels, and they exchanged a look that had to mean more than it seemed, because their body language changed, and they were moving in unison on a path that would take them to their target from opposing directions. Catching this, Bonnie and Elena went for a more direct path, and made it to the entrance to the tomb first.

"That doesn't look good," Elena said, prodding the piles of dirt and rock that had been moved aside.

"No, it doesn't," Bonnie said.

"Can you tell if she's already done the spell?"

"She can't do it on her own, she needs a witch, but there's been magic done here." It raked across Bonnie's skin like fingernails, and made her want to walk away. "Somebody wanted to get into the tomb and they couldn't."

"Are they still here?" Elena asked.

"I've been waiting," Anna said, and Bonnie turned to face her.  
Anna had the journal in one hand and was smiling. "You killed Ben."

"I did," Bonnie said.

"It's too bad, he had his uses, but I don't need him to get what I want. You wouldn't have come here alone, so you might as well come out, Stefan."

"You can't do this, Anna," Stefan said, stepping into the clearing.

"I can, and I will, I only needed the journal, and now that I have that, you're going to help me find the grimoire and then the tomb will be opened and things will go back to the way they should be."

"Setting them free isn't going to make everything all right, too much time has passed, and with what's happened to them, there's no way to know that they're still sane."

"I don't care, I just want my mother back."

"She won't be the same," Stefan said.

"That's all you can say? I know that, and it doesn't matter."

"What about all the people they're going to hurt?" Elena asked, and Anna whilred on her.

"You don't get to lecture me. Mother liked Jonathan Gilbert, and he shot her in the back before he dragged her away."

"What you're doing will hurt a lot of people," Bonnie said, and Anna looked at her, but her expression was gentler.

"I know, and it might have mattered once, but it's been too long. Emily told me she knew how to keep them safe, she didn't say it was for the rest of the town too." She swallowed hard. "They killed her, for being with us, and all she did was try and save them."

"You'll help me, witch, because otherwise I'll kill your friend and her boyfriend."

"That won't be easy," Stefan said, and Anna laughed.

"You don't take care of yourself, do you? All you have are one human and a witch, and that's if Damon doesn't show up and take my side."

"Help me," Anna said to Bonnie. "I can break your neck before you can do your fire trick, or you can just do what I want."

"Go ahead and try it," Bonnie said and stepped shoulder to shoulder with Elena, Stefan off to the side, waiting and ready to step in.

"If they get free, I'll kill them," Bonnie said. "The second they try to hurt anybody, it'll look like a forest fire, and nobody will know the difference."

"You don't have that much power," Anna said, and Elena laughed.

"Oh, you don't want to try her."

"I mean it, don't test me."

"You'll help me," Anna said, and rushed forward only to be brought up short by Damon standing in her way.

"I know how you feel, it's frustrating when things don't go your way," Damon said, and Anna swore when he came up behind her. "But you can't have the witch."

"What, are you in love with her?" Anna sneered. "So much for your love for Katherine."

"I do love Katherine," Damon said. "This has nothing to do with her." He tilted his head.

"Actually it does, but I'm not done with the witch, and I found her first."

Anna tried to get around Damon, but he shifted with her and she shoved at him in pure frustration. "She said she'd kill them."

"Only if they hurt someone. There are alternatives, not as satisfying, I grant you, but there are ways of getting around this."

"Are you going to share them?"

Damon grinned. "Ask her nicely to do the spell."

"Like that will work," Anna said.

"Sometimes it does," Damon said.

"I will kill her if she tries to hurt my mother," Anna said, pushing a finger into Damon's chest. He caught her hand and twisted her wrist sharply.

"You'll try, and she knows."

Stefan had been watching Damon and Anna square off, and went to Elena's side without taking his eyes off the argument. "We still don't know where the grimoire is."

"I bet you do," Damon said. "You saw those pages, don't tell me you haven't pieced it together yet."

"I have." Stefan had his arm around Elena' shoulders and Bonnie could tell he wanted to put her behind him to try and protect them from Damon and Anna both.

"Are you going to share?" Damon asked, walking in a wide arc closer to them, and Bonnie saw Stefan stand taller.

"I want your word that you won't hurt them, and that you'll do everything you can to keep Katherine from destroying this town."

"My word? Since when have you trusted me to keep it?"

"Since now. I don't have anything else to bargain with."

"The witch would do fine," Anna said, but Damon shook his head.

"No, Stefan wants a promise, funny, since all he knows about promises is how to break them."

"It's what I want," Stefan said.

"Okay, fine, I give you my word that I won't let Katherine rip any of these self righteous citizens apart like they so deserve. Now, where is the book?"

"In Father's grave."

Damon blinked. "Seriously?"

"The diary says that Jonathon Gilbert gave Emily's spell book to our father, and that he said he would take it to his grave."

"He was being literal," Anna said.

"The man wasn't too bright," Damon said.

"He caught on to what Katherine was doing," Stefan said, and then closed his mouth when Damon snarled at him.

"I may have made you a promise, Stefan, but I didn't say that I wouldn't hurt you for what you did, that promise still stands."

Damon led the way to a spot in the woods where there was a small headstone and a stopped there.

"Your father wasn't buried in the family crypt?" Elena asked.

"No," Damon said, and he didn't go on.

"This won't take long with all of us digging," Stefan said, but hesitated as he stared at his father's grave.

"I'm sorry," Elena said. "You shouldn't have to do this."

Stefan squeezed her hand and then let go and began digging.

With five of them working together, they were able to reach the rotting coffin in a matter of minutes, and then Damon jumped into the hole, and knocked a hole into it with his boot. He reached inside and pulled out a large book, and climbed back up again.

"Is that it?" Anna asked.

"Looks just about like what I remember," Damon said and began brushing the dirt off it. When Bonnie came closer, he handed it to her. "See if you can find the spell."

There was a piece of cloth marking a spot in the book, and Bonnie turned to that page, and nodded. "This is the one."

"Can you do it?" Ann asked impatiently.

"I don't know," Bonnie said, and waved at Elena. "Here, hold the flashlight up so I can see what this says."

Elena raised the flashlight and they read the spell together. "Is there more?" Elena asked.

"Emily has a lot of notes here about seasonal energy, and the alignment of elemental forces," Bonnie said. "I think that means there's a time when this should be done."

"Like when?" Anna asked.

"Spring or summer solstice are best."

"Do it now," Anna said loudly, and Bonnie closed the book hard.

"I can't, I don't know if Emily was just stronger than me, or she knew so much more about her powers, but she did things that I just can't yet. If I keep at it, I might be that good, but it's not going to happen because you want it to happen."

"You could probably be able to do it by spring if you studied," Stefan said quietly, and Bonnie nodded.

"Yes."

"Then that's what we'll do," Damon said.

"Now you're the patient one?" Stefan asked.

"No, I've got something to look forward to, that means I've got stuff to do in the meantime."

Bonnie didn't take her eyes off Anna, she was waiting to see if the offer would be accepted.

"You'll do it?"

"I said I would, yes."

"Nothing is going to change your mind?"

"I don't see the point in worrying about it, I said I would do this, and I will, but if you try anything, or if more of your friends come here trying to take over, I won't help you."

Anna nodded jerkily and stepped away from them. "I might not be in town, but I'll be close." She stopped walking and turned slightly. "Jeremy has my number, let me know if things change."

"We'll do that," Damon said, and Anna nodded at him.

"Make sure she stays on track."

"I don't need help with that," Bonnie said, and Damon smirked.

"I'll do it anyway."

"If I say so," Bonnie said, but she was smiling a little bit now.

Anna eyed them all again, and then took off through the trees.

Everyone, except Damon, breathed a sigh of relief when she'd vanished from sight. "Will she stay away?" Elena asked.

"Yes," Stefan said. "She wants this badly enough that she'll keep her promise."

"Hopefully she's not the only one." He kissed Elena lightly, and they smiled at each other. "We're going home now," Stefan said, and set off with Elena, her leaning her head on his shoulder, unmistakably together.

Damon didn't stare after them, he was kicking dirt back into his father's grave, seeming to take some obscure pleasure in it, and when he was done, he stamped on the earth, packing it down and then stepped away. "Shall we?" Damon asked, and Bonnie nodded.

"Are you going to be able to wait that long?"

"I'll find ways to stay busy," Damon said, and caught Bonnie by the shoulder. "You meant it?"

"I said so, didn't I?" She met his gaze squarely, knowing that she couldn't be the first one to look down, otherwise he wouldn't believe what she was saying.

Damon didn't let anyone see that he was nervous or uncertain very often, but Bonnie was seeing it now, and knew that at least some of it wasn't a trick to get her to say the right thing.

"Yes, I meant all of it." Including what she would do if pushed to defend her friends and family, and Damon understood.

Damon cupped her cheek, and his smile was the one he was wearing when she killed Ben. "Good."  
He bent his head and kissed her on the mouth, so lightly that Bonnie barely felt it.

It was nice, but Bonnie felt a bit let down. "What was that?"

"A kiss," Damon said and licked his lips.

"Is that all I get?" Bonnie asked. "After the day I've had, and all the drama you've put on, you need to do better than that."

"Bossy," Damon said, and Bonnie nodded and tucked the grimoire more firmly under her arm.

"Get used to it."

"It gets better?"

"Can you handle it?" Bonnie asked.

"I won't change my mind," Damon said. "Not even if we go further with this."

She wasn't trying to fool herself into believing there would be more. "I know."

Damon regarded her with interest. "You're okay with that?"

"I can deal," Bonnie said.

"All right," Damon said, and his body language changed, and became more open. "When did you want to get started?"

"Now is good."

This kiss wasn't soft or quick, and Bonnie liked it much better. She didn't know what to do with her free arm, and then Damon lifted her up so she was resting against his body. Bonnie got a better angle by putting her legs around his waist, and got a surprised noise out of Damon as a reward.

"I guess you were serious," Damon said, and rested on hand in the middle of her back, and Bonnie leaned back into it, just because she could, and got an appreciative look from Damon. "What did you have in mind for the rest of your night?"

"I need to be somewhere I don't have to take care of things," Bonnie said. "I've done that enough today."

"I won't argue with that," Damon said. "Unless you want me to."

"I want you to take me out, and do it right. No talk about witches, vampires, or Katherine, unless I bring them up, and you keep the the smarminess to virtually nil." Bonnie was still holding onto the grimoire, and she shifted it as she pushed a finer into Damon's chest. "So put me down, and let's go." She narrowed her eyes. "I'm keeping the book."

"No problem," Damon said, and let her slid down until her feet were on the ground.

"I doubt that's true," Bonnie said, but when Damon held his arm out, she took it, and smiled when he led her carefully through the woods.

"I owe you a night out," Damon said.

"You do," Bonnie said. She didn't know what that might entail for a vampire who staying on the side of good, if only according to his curious definition of the word. "I sense that you've got an idea of where we're going."

"I do."

"Will I like it?" Bonnie asked.

"You won't know unless you try," Damon said, and that summed up a lot of things about her life lately.

"Okay, show me," Bonnie said and Damon slowed his pace so that they were walking together. "We'll see where it goes from there."


End file.
